Hard drive

Stewart knows there's no 'gentleman's agreement' in racing

Whether or not you were happy to see Tony Stewart win Sunday, you at least have to be happy he won the race on the up and up -- which wouldn't have been the case if he'd had his way the week before. (Forgive me for the tardy rant; I was on vacation last week.)

Stewart, as you may remember, was dominating Dover when he was penalized a lap for pitting out of his stall. He nearly got his lap back, but Ryan Newman wouldn't let him have it. Stewart went nuts, trying to bump him and then generally behaving like an infant following the race, doing all sorts of screaming and, one suspects, threatening to hold his breath until he turned blue.

Whether he deserved to be penalized is debatable. Whether Newman should have laid down and said, "Here, why don't I make it easier for me to lose this race?" isn't. What gives Stewart the right to expect a competitor to give him a leg up? A gentlemen's agreement? Please. He's no gentleman. He showed that with his histrionics, which, I've got to say, can no longer be written off as "competitiveness" or "intensity."

Had Newman given him his lap back and he would have won (which seemed like a very real possibility), it would have been a tainted -- not to mention ridiculous -- victory.

"That'll come back around," said Greg Zipadelli, Stewart's crew chief. "Next week at Pocono, I guarantee you nobody gets a lap back if we're leading." That's the way it was, and that's the way it always should have been.

Bobby Labonte -- OK, if ifs and buts were candies and nuts, we'd have Christmas every day. But if you throw out the four races in which Labonte has had some sort of mishap, his average finish is 5.3, and that's with a 17th-place finish Sunday. He had crummy luck last year while Stewart was on, now it looks like the roles are reversed. Labonte is a legit threat to win it, and I never thought I'd be saying that in June.

Joe Nemechek -- "Front Row" Joe lost five spots to drop to 18th. That's what finishing 38th will do to you. Still, he's been one of this year's most pleasant surprises.

Dale Jarrett -- On the other hand, there's DJ. He's got a win under his belt and he's still behind a rookie who missed a start (Greg Biffle). He's five spots behind Dave Blaney. He's in 27th place.