WATKINS GLEN, N.Y — Tony Stewart took a few moments for himself before climbing out of his No. 14 Haas Automation Chevy on Watkins Glen’s long pit road after Sunday’s race.
And when the three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion finally emerged and settled back against his car, he looked like the cat that ate the canary. Smile and all.
Surviving the last few hairy laps of the Cheez-It 355 at the Glen was an accomplishment of its own as drivers all around him spun or crashed out in the final frenzied chase to the checkers.
But this veteran is the all-time best on the picturesque Watkins Glen, New York, road course with five career victories. And Stewart certainly drove that way Sunday adding a fifth-place finish to his impressive run toward a championship in his final NASCAR season.
Why did he look so satisfied Sunday?
“Cause we’re not one of the guys that got tore up in the last red there,” Stewart said smiling and speaking about the twice red-flagged race eventually won by Denny Hamlin.
“The spotter was telling me pairs of guys that were mad at each other. I was like, for once, I’m not mad at anybody with six laps to go. So that was a nice position to be in.
“When you get 10 to go like that, you get restarts, it’s going to be pretty hectic and guys are going to be running into each other and pushing each other out of the way.
“I’m pretty happy to come out of it with a top-five.”
Since missing the first eight races of the year recovering from injuries in an off-season all-terrain vehicle accident, Stewart has slowly but very surely returned to fighting form.
He earned a post-season berth with a dramatic win at the series’ other road course in Sonoma, California, last month. He’s scored four top-five finishes in the last five races and his five total top-five finishes are more than seven of the drivers currently ranked among the standings’ top 16.
Half of his 14 starts have resulted in top-10 showings. And although Stewart is 26th in the points standings, he’s only 86 points behind 20th-place Ricky Stenhouse Jr. with eight fewer starts.
His victory last month and being ranked among the top-30 in points virtually punches his ticket into the Chase which begins next month at Chicago.
The way he drove, survived and overcame this weekend – along with an ever-growing appreciation of new crew chief Mike Bugarewicz — is exactly what has Stewart hopeful about his chances come Chase time.
“Got a top-five out of it, didn’t we?” a smiling Stewart said Sunday. “That tells the story right there. There’s guys who had top fives going into the last corner and couldn’t finish it. We’ll take what we got.
“We just keep being consistent, even on days we don’t have a top-10 or top-five car, we’re finding ways to make top-fives out of it. That’s what you’ve got to do in the Chase. You’ve got to be able to make something out of nothing, and these guys are doing a great job out of that.”