Tony Stewart pleased after ‘huge’ win at Chicagoland – NASCAR news
Tony Stewart won the first chase race of the 2011 Sprint Cup Championship with an enthralling victory at the Geico 400 at the Chicagoland Speedway on Monday.
This was the two-time champion’s first victory of the season and the 40th of his career.
While race officials and spectators would not have been happy with the postponement of the race, Stewart said that he was glad that the race had been postponed as he had been suffering from a migraine on Sunday and would not have been able to perform at
his full potential.
The win moves him to second in the race for the Sprint Cup Championship, just seven points behind leader Kevin Harvick.
Before the race, Stewart had already counted himself out of the race for the Sprint Cup Championship and had previously said that his team was “wasting one of those top 12 spots.”
Even after the win, the outspoken Stewart was not getting ahead of himself and insisted that much was to be done before they could be considered as title contenders.
“I'm not sure one weekend can do that,” Stewart said. “But I feel better about it, obviously. We've had three good weekends in a row. [Monday] doesn't change my mind -- but the last three weeks definitely make me feel better about it.”
Stewart also waved off suggestions that memories of the 2010 race at New Hampshire had been playing in his mind. He claimed he did not have time to think about it as he was too worried about the interval between him and the cars behind him.
The 2010 opening Chase Race at New Hampshire saw Stewart on the wrong end of the fuel mileage gamble when his car ran out of gas on the last lap as he was heading for the win and he never recovered to challenge for the Cup again.
Luck has sided with him this time around and with the next race at New Hampshire, where Stewart and his team have a pretty solid record, he seems to be the only one discounting himself from the 2011 Championship race.
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