Nascar and Racing Stewart Haas Racing

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- If pressed to find one thing Ryan Newman would change about his season, of course, he'd like to score a win in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup season finale at Homestead Miami Speedway.

After being close to victory circle a half-dozen times this season, that's about the only thing he feels is missing from a stellar debut season with the essentially start-up Stewart-Haas Racing team. Newman won two pole positions in the No. 39 U.S. Army-sponsored Chevrolet and, after an ominous start at the season-opening Daytona 500, still qualified for the 12-driver Chase for the Championship.

In our last installment of Inside the Chase for the Championship with Ryan Newman, FanHouse looks at the evolution of the season and how Newman evaluates his fresh start.

Ryan Newman is back where he's spent his entire career proving he belongs: contending for a season championship.

For the first time since 2006, last year's Daytona 500 winner Newman is part of NASCAR's Chase for the Championship, a 10-race playoff stretch that kicks off Sunday at New Hampshire International Raceway.

He enters the Sylvania 300 ranked 10th in the standings, only 40 points back from leader Mark Martin, and coming off three consecutive top-10 finishes in the No. 39 U.S. Army-sponsored Chevrolet.

Newman, 31, will be FanHouse's exclusive go-fast, go-to man for the Chase for the Championship partnering with FanHouse for weekly features and interviews every week throughout the next 10 races determining the 2009 Sprint Cup champion.

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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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The celebratory Fourth of July pyrotechnics going off along the backstretch following Saturday night's NASCAR race at Daytona International Speedway were nothing compared to the last-lap fireworks show minutes earlier on the frontstretch.

Two-time NASCAR champ Tony Stewart muscled his way by Kyle Busch about 100 yards before the finish line -- holding his line as Busch tried to block him. Ultimately, Stewart was able to get his nose in position for the pass. When Busch tried to stop Stewart's final push, the two cars collided and Busch's car spun out, hitting the wall and paving the way for Stewart to capture the victory.

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) -- Tony Stewart is off to such a strong first season as a team owner, he's already open to expansion.

The Sprint Cup Series points leader said Friday he'd consider adding a third team to Stewart-Haas Racing next year if the right combination was available. Although he promised his team not to expand too quickly, their success so far this season has made him consider his options.

"I wanted to make sure we had two cars that were competitive and had a chance to win a championship," he said Friday at Infineon Raceway. "I'm proud of the fact that I think we're at that point. So if the right situation came along, we would entertain it."

Really now, was there any more fitting way for Tony Stewart to claim his first win as owner-driver in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series?

After crashing in Saturday practice, Stewart started a backup No. 14 Office Depot Chevrolet last in the 43-car field and had to massage the throttle for the last few laps so as not to run out of fuel -- while keeping a hard-charging Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson at bay. ... all to earn the Cup Series' first win for an owner-driver in 11 years.

Sunday's effort at Pocono, Pa. was the kind of driving mastery, grit and determination that proves why the masterful, gritty, determined Stewart is the best true, all-around talent of NASCAR's new generation of racers.

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LONG POND, Pa. (AP) - All Tony Stewart could do the final laps at Pocono Raceway was use every trick available to stretch out his fuel and creep toward the finish line.

Like the gamble he made to leave Joe Gibbs Racing and start his own team, the fuel-mileage call was the right one. Stewart matched his win in the All-Star race with his first Cup points victory as a team owner Sunday, coming from the rear of the field in his backup car at Pocono.

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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.

There's a lot of folks in the NASCAR world that said Tony Stewart was straight crazy to leave his championship-winning team of Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2009 season.

Me? I didn't exactly make a prediction to stay on the safe side, mainly because I know how Stewart always produces when the odds are against him.

But for all of those that said Stewart and hired teammate Ryan Newman wouldn't find success, the still-young Stewart-Haas Racing is proving the doubters to be completely wrong.