Meet Tony Stewart, King of the Road

Road course aces and Jeff Gordon have stepped aside, as the new sheriff in the NASCAR Sprint Cup road racing town has arrived and conquered.

Tony Stewart, of course, added to his sizable reputation on the lefts and rights of the mostly oval series Monday with his rain-postponed win at Watkins Glen International Raceway -- the eighth such win of his career on the twisty layouts.

And in doing so, Stewart erased all doubts that he's going to be the man to beat on the road courses for a long, long time.

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It took just 46 laps of the 90-lap event for Stewart to assume control, and when he finally got back by Kyle Busch on lap 67 in just the opposite fashion of what he did on lap 46, it was tough to believe that anyone could top him -- though second-place Marcos Ambrose tried as hard as he could late in the race. Older tires on Ambrose's car were a factor, but getting to and around Stewart may have taken a little something more.

And in victory lane, Stewart made sure to make it known that he was the king of Watkins Glen.

"This is my house right here," Stewart said.

That's sure hard to dispute, as those words came in a victory lane that he has failed to visit just three times since 2002, and in that time has yet to go more than a single season without a win. His 34 laps led Monday brought his career total laps led to 225 -- just two shy of Jeff Gordon's career total of 227.

Gordon, of course, was the resident NASCAR road course ringer just a few years ago after he totaled a still NASCAR-high of nine career wins on the only courses with intentional right turns. And while he still may hold that record, Gordon hasn't won on a road course since the June 2006 event at Sonoma.

At Watkins Glen, it's been 2001 since Gordon was in victory lane.

Monday, Gordon started deep in the field with what appeared to be a decent car and good strategy to gain track position, but the two crashes he was involved in -- including the nasty crash with Sam Hornish Jr., and Jeff Burton -- never allowed that to materialize.

This isn't to say that Gordon has lost his knack for the road courses (remember, he was just two laps from winning in 2007 before spinning in turn one while in the lead in front of eventual race winner Stewart) but it does show that his team hasn't been as solid getting a strategy and race car under the Vallejo, Calif., driver.

The rate Stewart has been hitting lately, however, doesn't appear to have any end in sight. Stewart's Monday win was especially important because it marked the second time he's won a road course in the Car of Tomorrow chassis at The Glen, and third overall. Gordon has yet to win in the CoT platform.

Doubly important was that Stewart won in his new Stewart-Haas Racing team, showing that it wasn't just Joe Gibbs Racing cars that Stewart found comfort in at the road courses.

Guys like Gordon, Marcos Ambrose and Kyle Busch will obviously remain staunch competition for Stewart in the future, but there's no doubt that Stewart has gained an upper hand.

Of course, it's possible that with the success he's had on the road courses, we might just hear Stewart not only playfully lobbying for a NASCAR dirt track race, but also for a few more of the left and right turns on the Sprint Cup schedule.

After all, Tony Stewart -- road course sheriff -- would probably like to add a few more victory lane 'houses' to his collection.