By Stephen Lars
Tony Stewart the driver and the owner of the Stewart Haas Racing team, managed to finally take home his first win of the season in the Nascar Sprint Cup Series.
This race was held at the Atlanta Motor Speedway Circuit. Stewart managed to attain his thirty-eight win in his professional career in what is well-recognized as Nascar’s premiere racing series.
This is Stewart’s first victory after almost a year of without driving pass victory lane and into the highest spot in the podium. His last Sprint Cup series win came in October of 2009 when he defeated Carl Edwards, who, by the way, has not finished first since the end of the 2008 season.
Tony Steward came off the starting grid from the fifth position. From the start, Stewart came out of the grid with much aggressiveness and made it clear that he was going to take a go at Denny Hamlin who had started in the poll position.
Stewart’s performance kept getting better lap after lap. He was driving with clear dominance managing to skip and avoid most of the troubles that could have happened in the race circuit. Little by little, Stewart was capable of advancing to the front of the pack.
First, Steward left Carl Edwards behind. He smoothly took control of the 4th position. This was a good strike at Edwards who is Stewart’s closest rival in both the Sprint Cup and the general drivers standings. Without losing his momentum, he then made it pass Kyle Busch and without much more effort (at least he made it seem like a flawless move) he was able to pass Ryan Newman who was holding on to second place.
Stewart had push down the pedal to the metal and kept on gaining seconds after each lap. Little by little he was able to catch up with Hamlin, who he had not much trouble passing to take on the lead. He was able to stay in front of the pack for 176 of the 325 laps that were scheduled for that race. Not only did he win the race at the end, he also guided the race further more then any other racer.
The Emory Healthcare 500 is noted for being a race that, aside from having a very long course, was developed in an orderly manner. No serious accidents occurred and only eight warning flags were waved during the race.
After each pass through the pit area, Stewart would momentarily lose the front of the race. He always kept his cool and was able to pull back to catch up with the rest of the pack. Throughout the competition there were 22 lead changes.
Stewart got the win thanks to the excellent work done by his team and the phenomenal development and fine tuning that went into prepping his car. The # 14 kept quiet, but did not lose focus every time he gave up the lead. With tenacity and caution he recovered without problem.
When there were 19 laps for the big ending, the race commissaries gave the last green flag. At the restart, the fight for first place was between Carl Edwards and Stewart. The dispute was won by Stewart, who remained in front until he crossed the finish line in first place, followed second by Edwards and by the four-time champion Jimmie Johnson who completed the podium.
There is only one race left in the regular season calendar. The top 10 racers have already secured a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Now, Greg Biffle and Clint Bowyer will take a go for the last spots available for the postseason.
About the Author
Stephen Lars has been a prominent writer on daily NASCAR races; sports news and the sportsbook industry for many exceptional sport web sites. You may reprint this article in its full content, please note no modifications to it are accepted.
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