Story of the Season: Tony Stewart Takes Points Lead

This week Tony Stewart is holding his annual, HBO pay-per-view all-star charity race, a multi-million dollar fundraiser that he named, the "Prelude to the Dream."

As of Sunday afternoon's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Dover, Del., it's clear Stewart -- the new championship leader -- is already living the dream, no matter how unlikely or far fetched it may have seemed five months ago.

"You hope that you don't wake up tomorrow and all of a sudden realize that we're just getting ready to go to Daytona or something and it's all been a dream,'' said Stewart, who's runner-up showing at Dover has propelled him to become the first owner-driver to lead the championship standings since 1992, when the late Alan Kulwicki won the title in that season's last race.



"We probably all lost bets that at this point we would be this far along,'' Stewart conceded Sunday. "But it's a good bet to lose, I guess."

And if so, it is the only losing proposition Stewart's been a part of this year

Halfway through the Sprint Cup Series' "regular season" you could make a case that Jeff Gordon's resurgence (nine weeks atop the standings, before falling 46 points behind Stewart) or Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s volatile start or Kyle Busch's three-series victory tear are story-of-the-year contenders.

Fifty-year old Mark Martin's two wins and Chase-worthy effort; Michael Waltrip Racing's coming of age; and certainly Jimmie Johnson's legitimate run at a historic four straight championships are also worthy of distinction.

For my money, the most compelling storyline of the 13-week old NASCAR season must be Stewart's immediate success as an owner-driver -- a compound feat that eclipses any of the other choices.

With the level of today's competition, it's hard enough to race yourself in the 12-man Chase, much less drive yourself to the championship lead. And that's only half of Stewart's amazing performance.

Stewart, 38, is leading the driver's championship while owning, operating and guiding the two-car Stewart-Haas Racing team which has BOTH drivers (Ryan Newman, too) comfortably in position for the playoffs. A team that prior to Stewart's arrival had never won a race. A team that before his winning touch hadn't been even an afterthought at fielding a car in the 10-race Chase for the championship that wraps up the season.


Gordon, Johnson, Martin and Busch have demonstrated stellar driving displays. Stewart's done that, PLUS run a two-car Cup team, in addition to a full slate of other business ventures that include track ownership and fielding a USAC and World of Outlaws championship team.

Wear two hats well? Hasn't been done in 17 years and even then Kulwicki's feat was considered a true Cinderella story.

It's hard to think of the gritty, outspoken Stewart as an underdog, but really he is. Other owners -- Jack Roush, Richard Childress and Joe Gibbs -- will tell you how hard it is to best Rick Hendrick's uber-operation and beat his all-star driver lineup. Stewart's doing both. And essentially doing it with Hendrick's own equipment.

As a driver Stewart's six top-five finishes in 13 starts is tied with Gordon and Johnson for tops in the series -- three of those are runner-up showings. His nine top-10 efforts is best of all drivers. He has zero DNFs and two weeks ago claimed the $1 million-to-win All-Star Race, a non-points paying exhibition where pride and paycheck usually produce one of the most competitive shows of the year.

As an owner, Stewart's assembled a leadership team that's also helped the group's other Chevrolet, driven by his friend Newman, to a fifth place championship ranking -- a jump of 22 positions in the standings in the last eight races -- the largest gain by any driver. Newman has five consecutive top-10 finishes and seven top-10s in the last nine races.

From the first preseason race when Stewart finished third in his SHR debut, he has humbly answered that he never expected such a short learning curve. His standard and modest response each week since has been on behalf of the entire organization.

"We're excited about it," Stewart said, duly noting with each new accomplishment that SHR has exceeded expectations. Again.

Stewart never fails to thank the team or show gratitude to Hendrick, for that matter, for the chassis and engines SHR uses.

"Have good people around you; have good people in the right spots,'' Stewart said. "That's the key in any business is to have good people around you that you can trust and that have your best interests in mind. That's what we've got."

And the lead driver isn't too bad either.

Few, including myself, figured Stewart to challenge for the championship in his first year out undertaking dual roles. We've been proven wrong. And we should know better by now.

As impressive as Stewart's efforts have been throughout the first half of the regular season, the most worrisome aspect for his competition should be that he typically doesn't start piling on the wins until summer and fall. If history is an indicator, this season's best success story is only going to get better.

The expectations have changed. For Stewart and for everybody else.