No. 5 Tony Stewart

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Tony Stewart has done well at Phoenix International Raceway, site of Saturday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
He won the race at Phoenix in 1999 and rarely finishes outside the top 10. Of course all of his previous races came when he was driving Chevrolets and Pontiacs for Joe Gibbs Racing.
This will be his first race at Phoenix in a Toyota. His team tested at the track over the winter and Stewart said his teammates, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch, were among the top drivers during that test.
"There were a few organizations, I won't say teams, but organizations that were really good at the test here," said Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. "I think the racing will be great. Obviously having two days plus two races last year to come here, that's the most time we've spent on a single track now (with these new cars)."
Stewart is coming off a seventh-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway and climbed into the top five in the Sprint Cup Series standings. He's riding quite a streak at Phoenix as well, with four top-fives in his past five races at the track. He has two runner-up finishes in his past two spring races at the track.
"I think it will be a good race here this weekend," Stewart said. "I think you're going to have a lot of guys up front that have the package figured out and you're going to have the rest of us that are trying to figure out exactly what we need to get that little bit up there with every one else. I don't think you're going to see just one or two guys that are going to run off and run away from the field like we had last year. I think you're going to see a group of six or eight guys that are going to have it figured out and it's going to be a pretty good race.”
The car his team is bringing to Phoenix will be making its fourth Cup start, but its first as a Toyota. The car made its debut at the Martinsville race in April last year when it led 11 laps and finished seventh. It has also raced at New Hampshire (finished third) and the Martinsville race (finished 13th) in October.
“I know it sounds real elementary and plain, but the race car is still going to do one of three things," Stewart said. "It’s going to be tight, it’s going to be loose, or it’s going to four-wheel drift. We’re not reinventing the wheel here. We’re just driving a different car. It’s a matter of just getting the cars to drive the way you want it to each week. It’s been a non-event.”

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About Haddock
in the Paddock


Tim Haddock covers motorsports — including stock-car and open-wheel racing — for the Los Angeles Daily News.

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This page contains a single entry by Tim Haddock published on April 10, 2008 2:20 PM.

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