Tony Crew #14 Car History Racing Blog
 

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    About Tony

    Tony Stewart is a racer’s racer. If a greyhound, a fighter pilot and a chainsaw sculptor were somehow genetically welded together, reengineered with gasoline and cloned to form a half-carburetor, half-human racing man/machine, Tony would be that man/machine. Tony Stewart was born to race. In other words, if when Tony Stewart was born the doctor told him racing hadn’t been invented yet, he would crawl to the library, teach himself how to read and begin studying how to cryogenically freeze himself long enough for racing to be invented. In 2005, during a race, Tony Stewart got tired and, while taking a nap in the backseat, passed eight cars to clinch the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

    If Tony Stewart were in a presidential race, his campaign bus would be a 50-passenger Camaro and people would vote for him because he would promise to do donuts on the White House lawn. The point is: Tony Stewart is a racer.

    In fact, Tony Stewart once raced in the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same day and then drove home to Indiana so he could watch the race highlights of himself racing, only to fall asleep and dream about losing a 40-yard dash to a puma only to wake up, rent a puma and race it in real life.

    What can we say? The guy likes to race.

  2. 2009 Stats

    No.
    Race
    Start
    Finish
    Points
    Pos.
    Laps
    Winnings
    1 Daytona 6 3 n/a n/a 78/78 $60,000
    2 Daytona 6 2 n/a n/a 60/60 $38,188
    3 Daytona 500 5 8 147 7 152/152 $371,371
    4 Auto Club 500 11 8 294 4 250/250 $139,748
    5 Shelby 427 10 26 379 8 283/285 $100,173
    6 Kobalt Tools 500 11 8 521 6 330/330 $96,048
    7 Food City 500 15 17 633 7 502/503 $101,648
    8 Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500 7 3 798 7 500/500 $119,273
    9 Samsung 500 7 4 963 5 334/334 $219,146
    10 Subway Fresh Fit 500 6 2 1138 4 312/312 $183,223
    11 Crown Royal presents the Russ Friedman 400 16 2 1402 3 400/400 $172,773
    12 Southern 500 presented by GoDaddy.com 18 3 1572 2 367/367 $171,696
    13 Charlotte 15 1 n/a n/a 100/100 $1,058,656
    14 Charlotte 28 19 1678 2 227/227 $109,973
    15 Dover 31 2 1853 1 400/400 $215,398
    16 Pocono 1 1 2043 1 200/200 $238,798
    17 Brooklyn 11 7 2189 1 200/200 $109,923
    18 Sonoma 4 2 2364 1 113/113 $211,096
    19 Loudon 1 5 2524 1 273/273 $134,548
    20 Daytona 1 1 2719 1 160/160 $349,873
    21 Joliet 32 4 2884 1 267/267 $165,373
    22 Indianapolis 7 3 3054 1 160/160 $314,573
    23 Pocono 1 10 3188 1 200/200 $105,673
    24 Watkins Glen 13 1 3383 1 90/90 $234,648
    25 Brooklyn 18 17 3500 1 200/200 $97,698
    26 Bristol 30 33 3564 1 489/500 $101,718
    27 Atlanta 12 11 3694 1 325/325 $118,823
    28 Richmond 27 17 5030 2 400/400 $93,473
    29 Loudon 2 14 5156 6 300/300 $100,973
    30 Dover 22 9 5294 5 400/400 $111,423
    31 Kansas City 5 1 5484 4 267/267 $332,498
    32 Fontana 20 5 5644 4 250/250 $143,248
    33 Charlotte 5 13 5768 4 334/334 $100,373
    34 Martinsville 13 9 5906 4 501/501 $99,923
    35 Talladega 4 35 5969 5 183/191 $85,648
    36 Fort Worth 4 6 6119 5 334/334 $181,098
    37 Phoenix 8 25 6207 5 310/312 $86,423
    38 Homestead 5 22 6309 6 267/267 $90,098

  3. Photos

 

November 16, 2009

Stewart Happy to See Phoenix in Rearview Mirror

Old Spice/Office Depot Driver Caught Up in Mid-Race Accident, Finishes 25th

Date: Nov. 15, 2009
Event: Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500k (Round 35 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: Phoenix International Raceway (1-mile oval)
Start/Finish: 8th/25th (Running, completed 310 of 312 laps)
Winner: Jimmie Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)

Tony Stewart’s drive in Sunday’s Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500k NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway went from a possible top-10 performance to a disappointing 25th-place result when he was caught up in a multi-car accident on lap 171 of the 312-lap race.

It was triggered when Dale Earnhardt Jr., spun coming off turn four of the 1-mile oval, and Stewart’s No. 14 Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala SS was among a gaggle of cars that were trapped in the ensuing melee. Nine cars in all were involved, with Stewart suffering significant damage to each corner of his racecar, including a busted front splitter that took three pit stops to repair.

Despite the bleak outlook and the subsequent time spent on pit road, crew chief Darian Grubb and his team were able to work on the No. 14 machine quickly enough to keep Stewart on the lead lap.

However, eventual race winner Jimmie Johnson was setting a blistering pace, and he soon lapped Stewart, not once, but twice. The battered Old Spice/Office Depot Chevy was no match for the clean lines of Johnson’s No. 48 ride, but that was the case with just about every entry in the 43-car field, as Johnson dominated the event by leading four times for a race-high 238 laps.

As Johnson sprayed champagne in victory lane and celebrated his 47th career Sprint Cup victory, his seventh of the season and his fourth at Phoenix, Stewart’s crew loaded his crumpled racecar onto the team’s transporter for the long haul back to Kannapolis, N.C., headquarters for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR).

Stewart’s SHR teammate, Ryan Newman in the No. 39 U.S. Army/Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala SS, fared only a little better. He was also caught up in the lap-171 accident, but didn’t suffer as much damage as Stewart. Still, it dropped him off the lead lap and delivered a 20th-place finish.

Johnson, the three-time and reigning Sprint Cup champion, has all but assured himself of making NASCAR history by becoming the only driver to win four straight championships. His 108-point lead over second-place Mark Martin is nearly insurmountable, for Johnson needs only to finish 25th or better in the season finale Nov. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Even with the frustrating outcome in the season’s penultimate race, Stewart remained fifth in the standings and is now 285 points behind Johnson. Newman maintained his ninth-place standing and is 411 markers out of first.

Enjoying a much better time in the Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500k was Jeff Burton, who finished 1.033 seconds behind Johnson in the runner-up spot to score his best finish of the season. Denny Hamlin finished third, while Martin and Martin Truex Jr., rounded out the top-five. Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jeff Gordon and David Reutimann comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were four caution periods for 23 laps, with six drivers failing to finish.

Only one race remains on the 2009 schedule, and the top-12 drivers who made up this year’s Chase for the Championship currently rank as follows:

1. Jimmie Johnson (6,492 points) +/-0
2. Mark Martin (6,384 points, -108) +/-0
3. Jeff Gordon (6,323 points, -169) +/-0
4. Kurt Busch (6,281 points, -211) +/-0
5. Tony Stewart (6,207 points, -285) +/-0
6. Juan Pablo Montoya (6,203 points, -289) +/-0
7. Greg Biffle (6,171 points, -321) +/-0
8. Denny Hamlin (6,140 points, -352) +/-0
9. Ryan Newman (6,031 points, -411) +/-0
10. Kasey Kahne (6,016 points, -476) +/-0
11. Carl Edwards (5,972 points, -520) +/-0
12. Brian Vickers (5,826 points, -666) +/-0

The season-ending Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway starts at 3:15 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by ABC beginning with its pre-race show at 2:30 p.m.

-TSC-

 
 
 
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