TONY STEWART'S nickname is "Smoke." Maybe we should add "Sandbag" to his nickname file.
Winless in the season's first 26 NASCAR Sprint Cup races, Stewart has opened the Chase with consecutive victories. He leads Kevin Harvick by seven points entering Sunday's AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway in Delaware.
Before the Chase, Stewart said he didn't think his team was Chase-worthy. Why the sudden turnaround for the No. 14 Chevrolet team?
"It happened in a week," Stewart said. "We went from five laps down at Bristol to running third at Atlanta the next week. No, you don't see it coming. It's not like we say, 'OK, this is what happened, this is what's wrong, this is what you have to do to fix it.'
"We just had really weird luck this year. There's been races where we just missed it, couldn't get the car happy. There's been races where we've been a top-five, top-three car or winning car, something stupid happened, you finish 15th or 20th, you leave going, 'We missed an opportunity.'
"The potential's been there all year. You wonder when the bad luck string is going to stop. I wish I could say you could predict it. You never know what's going to happen."
After three races this year, Stewart was tied with Kurt Busch for first place in points. Then he drifted to 12th and was in danger of not qualifying for the Chase.
Jeff Burton, for one, isn't surprised by Stewart's impressive Chase start. Talking about Stewart and teammate Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Chevrolet, Burton said, "The 39 was outrunning the 14 pretty consistently, but I didn't see that continuing," said Burton, a non-Chaser this year. "Tony is so good that I thought at some point they would swap over. That may be what you're seeing. They've caught the breaks they needed. When you couple skill with a little [good] fortune, you'll have a hard time [beating Stewart]."
While Stewart is enjoying his perch, he knows the Chase is far from over.
"The reality of it is you look at guys that are in the back half of the Chase right now, they're guys that a lot of people expected to be in the top five, top three in the points right now," he said. "It shows that 1 or 2 bad days can put you in a bad spot pretty quick."
Before anyone concedes this year's Chase title to Stewart, let's remember the 2008 experience of Greg Biffle, the only other driver to win the first two Chase races.
