| | | | | | BEATING THE ODDS | Stewart overcomes alternator woes for strong Richmond result | |
| | SceneDaily.com Staff Tony Stewart overcame an alternator problem with his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to garner a strong fourth-place finish in Saturday night's Crown Royal 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Race at Richmond International Raceway.
And as is often not the case, he did it quietly.
Stewart, who was the big headliner last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway after revealing he may leave Joe Gibbs Racing next year, certainly had a quiet night at Richmond compared with JGR teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.
Hamlin led a track record 381 laps before a tire issue ruined his night. Busch was challenging for the win with just over two laps left when he tangled with fan-favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr., sending Earnhardt Jr.'s Hendrick Motorsports car spinning and out of contention.
Sitting within striking distance of the leaders through the late drama was Stewart, who never challenged for the lead but ran stronger as the night went on after struggling to run in the top-10 in the first half of the race.
“We were absolutely terrible for about 300 laps, and then the last two pit stops we made a change that really brought this car to life," Stewart said. "Most of the day we kept concentrating on an area that normally we have to focus on to be decent at the end of a race, but we went a totally different direction the last quarter of the race and actually got it halfway decent.
"It was a little too late, but with a little help, it got us a top five. "That’s the whole moral of the story to this team – we never give up. Even at the end we may not have been the best car, but we were a fourth-place car.”
As for the alternator issues, Stewart wasn't exactly sure about the nature of the problem. But he knows it affected his car for a good portion of the race.
“I don’t know whether we lost an alternator belt or just broke an alternator or what, but I had to run the whole last half of the race with almost no fans, just front and rear brake blowers,” he said. “So no bead blowers, no air conditioning – none of the driver comforts we’re used to. The last 100 laps we ran with no fans at all – not even brake fans.
"To be able to run the last 100 laps like that and not have brake fans – which is a huge deal here at Richmond – I think we did pretty well.”
| | Posted May 04, 2008 , 3:49 pm EST
Last Updated May 04, 2008 , 3:56 pm EST | | | | | | | | | | |
