Tony Stewart labels performance in AAA 400 as ‘terrible’ – NASCAR news
Tony Stewart was an understandably disappointed man after a 25th place finish in the AAA 400 at the Dover International Speedway on Sunday, October 2, 2011.
Stewart, who headed to Dover as the leader in the Chase and on the back of consecutive chase victories, saw his title hopes suffer a massive blow as he dropped down to 3rd, 9 points behind leaders Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick.
Stewart had already suggested that he was not looking forward to Dover and all he wanted to do was survive. However, even he was not expecting a finish as low as the one they got in the race.
Stewart started the race from 25th and never managed to break past the top-20 barrier as he finished two laps behind the leaders when they raced to the finish line. Teammate Ryan Newman suffered in the same fashion and ended up
in 23rd place.
Stewart complained quite early in the race that the car was tight in the centre of the corner and he was struggling with its handling. The car continued to cause problems for him and he just could not come up to pace with the rest of the pack.
“When you run 25th and you’re two laps down, I don’t think you assess it as very good,” Stewart said. “We were terrible. It was just the whole package. Even when we got the balance halfway decent we didn’t have speed. We just missed it.”
Crew Chief Darian Grubb tired to make as many adjustments as he could to solve the issues but it just was not their day as Stewart continued to fall behind the leading drivers.
“The biggest thing is just that we don’t have the concrete tracks figured out,” Grubb said. “It’s obvious. At Bristol and Dover, we’ve just struggled for three years now with Tony there. We just need to figure out what we need to do. It’s not because of
a lack of effort.”
Stewart knows that he cannot afford another performance like this and will now be hoping he can get his title challenge back on track with a good finish at the Hollywood Casino 400 at the Kansas Speedway.
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