Stewart again comes through under toughest of times

	After a week spent growling about his teammate, Tony Stewart was all smiles after winning at Chicagoland Sunday afternoon. Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

Some people thrive on pressure. Tony Stewart thrives on chaos.

Somehow just when things hit the fan Smoke turns around and puts on a performance that leaves you shaking your head in amazement. Then he'll pop out of his car, do his fence-climbing act, and in the most charming of post-race interviews, he'll make you forget what the fuss as all about in the first place. Just as he did Sunday afternoon after winning the USG Sheetrock 400 in Joliet, Ill.

For most of the year Stewart and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin have had cars that ran up front, but, for the most part, didn't win. After he finally broke into Victory Lane Sunday, though, Stewart says he was never worried about how he was doing. "It's like I tried to explain to you guys, and you guys make more out of it and make us more stressed out than we do about ourselves. We take it one week at a time."

Yet, his emotions overflowed last week at Daytona Beach when he was involved in a crash with Hamlin. He blamed Hamlin, who may not have caused the incident. It was more than a disappointment for Stewart, who was looking for his third-straight victory in that event. And Hamlin surely felt hurt by Stewart's words.

Although they weren't the only teammates verbalizing internal problems, they were the only teammates who needed the intervention of a kind of Super Hero, in the form of team owner, and Super Bowl winning coach, Joe Gibbs, who changed his vacation plans and flew to Chicago to come in and calm down Tony and Denny.

At an almost 30-minute meeting during the beginning of their final practice, Gibbs gave one of his patented motivational speeches. How do you make a strong point? Keep your own drivers off the track. That takes guts on the part of a team owner, and that had to hit home.

After the race Stewart emphasized that there was no finger pointing.

We've seen it many, many, times before. J.D. Gibbs, Joe's son and president of Joe Gibbs Racing, agrees. "When you kind of look back. Of course, with Tony there's always a lot of chaos going on. So you can take your pick. I think for him, he's passionate about what he does. From Day 1 he's always told you what he's thinking. [H]e has matured over the years ... and learned ... to pick certain battles to fight."

If you aren't a Stewart fan, you have to admire the guy for saying just what is on his mind. Me? I'm waiting to hear if Gibbs hires Kyle Busch, who Stewart called a "dart without feathers" at Daytona last year. With Busch and Stewart on the same team, we'll really begin to know what chaos is.

Key moment

Stewart's final two pit stops. Crew chief Greg Zipadelli and the entire pit crew of his No. 20 Chevrolet got him out in the lead, and in the clean air. Once ahead of traffic late in the race, no one had anything on Stewart.

By the numbers

It was Stewart's 30th NASCAR Nextel Cup victory and his first this year, second at Joliet. More important -- it ended a 20-race winless drought.

Surprise development

The relative calm after the race. After last week's race in Daytona, numerous teams seemed ready to implode. While there are still issues simmering within certain teams, all was quiet for this week. Maybe looking forward to a one-week break in the action was enough to keep things quieter than last week.

Spinning my wheels

• Jimmie Johnson's blown tire resulted in a pretty scary-looking crash. You have to feel good that all the safety measures worked as designed. On the other hand, Johnson, who ran so strong earlier this year, has slipped in the points. This isn't anything to panic over yet, and with the bonus points for winning races earlier this year he still has time to turn around his results.

• Look out for Tony Stewart, it's a relatively late start for him and his team, yet he's certainly carrying momentum into the Brickyard 400.