Nascar and Racing Tony Stewart

Tony Stewart picked up his third rain-out pole position of the season Friday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway. He'll start the No. 14 Burger King-sponsored Chevrolet first in Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 by virtue of leading the championship standings. Rain washed out qualifying so the starting order reverts back to the season rankings.

Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson will start second and third.

"We weren't going to be third, I know that,'' Johnson said with a smile. "We'll take the track position, it is so important where you start and to take advantage of that all day long.''

Max Papis and Mike Wallace were among those outside the top-35 in the standings who ended up on the end of the circumstance and will miss the race. This is the fifth time this season and third time in the last five Sprint Cup races that qualifying has been cancelled because of bad weather.

Holding off Tony Stewart on multiple late-race, double-file restarts on a road course may turn out to be the easier proposition for Sunday's race winner Kasey Kahne.

Capitalizing on the momentum from the victory and avoiding drama in the final days that set the Chase for the Championship 12-driver field ... that's another story.

Kahne said Tuesday he's up for the challenge.

"That might be one of the reasons I like racing ... all the pressure and the excitement,'' Kahne said. "I don't mind it, I enjoy trying to perform under pressure.''

Good thing.

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) -- Kasey Kahne gave struggling Richard Petty Motorsports a much-needed boost Sunday, holding off Tony Stewart at Infineon Raceway to snap a 37-race winless streak.

Kahne was met in Victory Lane by Richard Petty, who made his first trip as a car owner in more than a decade. A Petty-owned car had not won a race since John Andretti's victory at Martinsville in April, 1999.

"I feel just as good as he does," said The King, clad in his trademark cowboy hat and sunglasses. "It's great, man. It's great."

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."

Consider the Pocono edition of 'Sprint Cup Notes & Quotes' to be a friend of custom-painted Gibson guitars.

Artist "stunned" about smash

As you could have guessed would happen, motorsports artist Sam Bass backtracked on his post-Kyle Busch trophy guitar smash comments at Nashville Superspeedway in an interview with Scene Daily.

Bass designed the paint job on the Gibson Les Paul guitar, only to see Busch whack it against the concrete numerous times in what amounts to a poor way to honor his team members.

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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Where: Pocono Raceway
Time: Sunday 5:45 p.m./EDT
TV/Radio: FOX Sports, PRN Radio
Twitter: In-race updates at FanHouseRacing
Forecast: 75 degrees, Partly Sunny
Distance: 200 laps (500 miles)
Pole Winner: Tony Stewart
2008 Winner: Kasey Kahne
Kyle Busch played his own version of Guitar Hero Saturday night at Nashville Superspeedway in Nationwide Series victory lane, and needless to say, his antics left a lot of people shaking their heads.

Tony Stewart likens it to Tiger Woods taking his buddies out to the local putt-putt golf course or Michael Jordan playing a pick-up game at the neighborhood park.

As the two-time NASCAR champ Stewart hosts the fifth rendition of his "Prelude to the Dream" exhibition race on Wednesday, it's very evident that what may have started as a favor to help Stewart's charitable foundation is now also one of the hottest invites in all of racing.

You'd think Ron Capps' day job driving a nitro-powered Funny Car 300 miles per hour in National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) competition would be enough to satisfy his need for challenge and excitement.

"There's not a whole lot that can compare to that but when you go through Turn One at Eldora and Jeff Gordon's on your wheel or you're trading paint with Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart, it pretty much rivals what we do in a Funny Car,'' said Capps, who leads the NHRA's Funny Car championship standings and is coming off his fourth win of the season Sunday in his NAPA-sponsored Dodge Charger Funny Car.

As far as Capps is concerned, Wednesday night's HBO pay-per-view all-star race, the Prelude to the Dream on the dirt high-banks of Eldora Speedway, is just as much fun for the racers as it is the fans cheering them on -- all in the name of big buck charity donations which will go to U.S. military themed charities this year.

And Capps wouldn't dream of missing out.