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Caution ahead Stewart wins Pocono 500 after late-race yellow flagPosted: Sunday June 08, 2003 5:24 PM
LONG POND, Pa. (AP) -- Tony Stewart was waiting for bad luck to ruin another good performance. It didn't happen, and a third consecutive powerhouse performance, combined with fast work by his crew, carried Stewart to victory Sunday at Pocono Raceway. He was leading and in control in each of his last two races -- and lost. "In the back of my mind I thought something was going to happen, and maybe that made me a little calmer and a little more focused," he said. Stewart had an engine problem two weeks ago at Lowe's Motor Speedway, then lost at Dover International Speedway after NASCAR imposed a one-lap penalty for stopping slightly out of his stall on pit road. "Can you pick just one thing?" he said when asked to choose his greatest moment of frustration. "I think all of you guys expected me to flip out the way things have gone." The temperamental Stewart has done that a few times in the past, landing himself on probation and necessitating professional help for anger management.
This time, however, he claimed to have more control than crew chief Greg Zipadelli, who often has to calm him down. "Zippy called me before the last restart and said, 'What are you doing.' I said, 'I'm driving the car, what do you think I'm doing?'" Stewart related. "He said, 'We're all standing here with butterflies. What about you?' I said, 'Nope, I'm in good shape.'" That he was. So, the Winston Cup champion got his first victory of the season in the Pocono 500. It ended the longest drought in his career at 27 consecutive defeats. "We finally got the monkey off our back," Stewart said. "I never thought I'd appreciate my first win of the year so much." He ran strong throughout the race, and took the lead on the 156th lap, one lap after coming to pit road in third position. He left with the lead after his crew outworked those of leader Sterling Marlin and Matt Kenseth. "I felt like the crew won the race [Sunday], not me," Stewart said. He took the lead for the final time with 11 laps left when Todd Bodine and Jeremy Mayfield pitted, but got a bad break when Kurt Busch blew a tire to bring out a caution flag with eight to go. But Stewart's Chevrolet led Mark Martin's Ford when the green flag waved for the final three laps and beat him back to the line by five car lengths after Terry Labonte spun out Jeff Green to end the $4.2 million race under caution. Mike Skinner also wrecked on the final lap. "We know how to lead, we just haven't been able to finish them off," Stewart said. "We've been on a great tear." Stewart's 16th victory was his first since he won last August in Watkins Glen, N.Y. It also was his first on the mountaintop, where he has eight top-10 finishes in nine starts. "We just have to keep doing what we've been doing," he said as his team rejoiced. "We just kept our chins up, and here we are." Stewart started fourth and led 37 of 200 laps on the 2 1/2-mile triangular track. "It's been a long hard year for all us," car owner Joe Gibbs said. "Tony's had a good car week in and week out. It shows you how hard this sport is." Stewart began his celebration before he took the green flag, pushing the pace car around near the end of the final lap. Zipadelli was as relieved as Stewart. "We should have been here a couple of weeks ago, but this was worth it," Zipadelli said. Martin was happy with his best finish of the season. "Tony was great, but we were, too," he said. "If anything went wrong for him we were be going to be all over him." Series leader Matt Kenseth finished third in a Ford, followed by the Chevy of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the Dodge of Ryan Newman, who won a week ago in Dover. Kenseth leads second-place Earnhardt by 176 points after 14 of 36 races, "It was a great finish for us," said Kenseth, who recovered after falling back at one point when his car stalled on pit road. "We had a good car all day for the long runs." The winner's average speed was 134.892 mph in race slowed for 25 laps by five caution flags. There were 28 lead changes among 16 drivers. Marlin, Labonte, Ward Burton, Elliott Sadler and Ricky Craven completed the top 10. Defending race champion Dale Jarrett had a fiery crash early in the race and wound up 42nd in a field of 43. He was not injured, nor was last-place finisher Ken Schrader, whose car flipped in a separate crash, hit the wall and burst into flames.
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