Tony Stewart was headed toward another top-10 finish in Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway until a late-race engine problem dropped him from eighth to 23rd in the final rundown.
The driver of the No. 14 Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) bided his time and stayed out of trouble for much of the 188-lap race. It wasn’t until lap 136 that Stewart cracked the top-10, and as the draft ebbed and flowed, Stewart rose to as high as second and fell to as low as 20th.
ReadSubway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on April 18, 2009.




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Tony Stewart inched ever closer to his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory as a driver/owner after finishing a season-best second in Saturday night’s Subway Fresh Fit 500k at Phoenix International Raceway. The driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet Impala SS also earned the best finish to date for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), the two-car team Stewart co-owns with Oxnard, Calif.-based Haas Automation, the largest CNC machine tool builder in the western world.
“I’m just happy for everybody from Office Depot, Old Spice and Haas Automation that believed in me when I had this idea of starting this deal last year,” said Stewart, who led once for a total 19 laps in the 312-lap race, bringing his season total to 53 laps led. “We’re getting there, man. I’m telling you, we’re so close. We’re going to get us a win here soon. We’re not going to let our fans down.”
ReadAfter scoring his career best finish as a driver/owner in last weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, Tony Stewart was poised to improve upon that third-place effort with a win in Sunday’s Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
The driver of the No. 14 Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) led four times for 16 laps on the 1.5-mile Texas oval, and with 25 laps remaining in the 334-lap race, had a shot at scoring that much-desired victory. But when the checkered flag dropped, Stewart was the fourth driver across the stripe. It wasn’t a win, but it was his ninth top-10 finish in 15 career Sprint Cup starts at Texas.
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