By Harold Raker
LONG POND — Three-time and defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson believes it is one of the two biggest surprises of the season.
Jeff Burton is envious. David Reutimann, who recently won his first Cup race, is impressed.
The success of Tony Stewart as an owner/driver has definitely boggled the minds of NASCAR drivers, crews and fans.
Stewart, a two-time Cup champion for Joe Gibbs Racing, did the unthinkable. He left the successful Gibbs operation to become an owner/driver, joining the less-than-successful Carl Haas (Haas Automation, of California) to former Stewart-Haas Racing.
He starts his No. 14 Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet on the pole for today’s Pocono 500 by virtue of Friday’s rainout of qualifying. Last week, Stewart became the first owner/driver to lead the Cup point standings since the late Alan Kulwicki won the title on the final race of the 1992 season over Bill Elliott.
“I still think Tony is crazy for starting up his own team, but he’s doing a great job with it. And those guys have been very successful,” said Johnson, who sits third in points behind his teammate, Jeff Gordon.
Reutimann, who won the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, N.C., two weeks ago and joked that the rain this weekend came too early for him, said of Stewart, “I’m pretty impressed. You had to know those guys were going to have success at some point. You just didn’t know how quick it was going to come.”
In addition to the 38-year-old Stewart leading the points, the team’s second driver, Ryan Newman — who left Penske Racing after last season — is fifth in the standings. He has parked his No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet one spot behind his former Penske teammate, Kurt Busch.
Reutimann said, “You knew the drivers were capable of doing it — that was a no-brainer there — but you didn’t know how long it was going to take the team to gel and become as strong as what they have.
“I think it’s pretty impressive to see what those guys have done in a relatively short amount of time.”
NASCAR veteran Jeff Burton, who is 10th in the points, said the new team’s success probably has made other drivers think about following Stewart’s lead.
“It hasn’t made me think about it,” Burton said. “I have interest in being an owner, but I don’t have interest in being an owner and a driver at this point in my life.”
Stewart said he learned a lot from his old boss, Gibbs, and it has made a difference in his own team.
“Joe’s strength is he knows how to assemble the right people to do the right jobs. That’s proof of what he’s done in the NHRA and the NFL and in NASCAR. No matter who it was, and even in their motorcross team now, they’ve been successful,” Stewart said.
That is what led Stewart to hire some of the best minds in the business, including Tony Gibson and Darian Grubb as the crew chiefs for Newman and himself, respectively, along with director of competition Bobby Hutchens and Newman, last year’s Daytona 500 winner, as his second driver.
“That’s one thing I learned from Joe Gibbs is making sure you get the right core group of people. That was the hardest part of my job in the fall, getting the group assembled,” said Stewart, referring to the aforementioned hirings as “four key pieces.”
Next up on Stewart’s wish list is becoming the first owner/driver to win a Cup race since Ricky Rudd, who did it on Sept. 27, 1998, at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
Stewart, who won at Pocono in 2003, had mixed feelings about earning the No. 1 starting spot by virtue of Friday’s rain.
“Obviously everybody is disappointed we didn’t get on the race track (Friday), but it worked out good for myself and Jeff (Gordon). It’s nice to be able to get a front-row starting spot because of rain, but it’s not what the fans came to see. It’s not what our TV partners want to see, but it’s just a part of what happens,” Stewart said.
Stewart used the rain-shortened Friday schedule to travel to his own dirt track, Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, to compete in a sprint car race.
Based on Stewart’s performances to date, few would be surprised if Indiana’s Rushville Rocket parks his Cup car in victory lane this afternoon.
