When Tony Stewart an-nounced late last season that he would leave Joe Gibbs Racing to form Stewart Hass Racing and field his own team in 2009, many questioned Stewart’s ability to effectively compete for a Sprint Cup championship while operating a team.

After Stewart’s start to 2009, there’s clearly no need to question.
Stewart claimed his first victory as an owner/driver, capturing the Sprint All-Star Chal-lenge last Saturday at Lowes’ Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Stewart captured the win in what turned out to be arguably the most ex-citing last ten laps in all-star history. The segment began with Jeff Gordon in the lead, but Kyle Busch made a daring pass on the outside to take the front spot. But his move caused several drivers to check up, leading Denny Hamlin to run into the No. 48 Chevrolet of Jimmie John-son, sending him spinning out of contention.

As the race returned to green, Ryan Newman moved up to challenge Gordon and Busch for the lead. As the three drivers went three-wide, Newman and Busch’s cars touched, sending Busch bouncing into the wall, ricocheting off and back into New-man, who in turn sent Gordon’s car spinning across the infield grass.

After a restart with five laps to go, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch battled for the top spot with a charging Stewart closing quickly. As Busch begun to fade, Stewart inched closer and closer to the lead, and finally, with two laps remaining, Stewart blew past Kenseth and never looked back, winning by nearly a full sec-ond and taking home a $1 million paycheck.

“To get those guys in Victory Lane and to get these guys on the team that haven’t been to Victory Lane there for the first time—that means more than the million dollars does to me,” Stew-art said. “It’s that gratifying to get this group of guys to Victory Lane.”

Kenseth did finish second, followed by Kurt Busch in third. Denny Hamlin rebounded from his wreck to finish fourth, and Carl Edwards was fifth.

Sam Hornish Jr. continued his rise in NASCAR by winning the Sprint All-Star Open, a “last chance” race for drivers not already qualified for the main event. He finished 16th. Jamie McMurray finished second in the Open and also advanced. He would finish ninth.

Rookie Joey Logano was the recipient of this season’s Fan vote-in and ad-vanced to the main event. He finished eighth.
Mayetta, New Jersey native Martin Truex Jr. failed to qualify for the Sprint All-Star Challenge, finishing fourth in the Open.
Camping World Truck Series: Ron Hornaday took home the checkered flag in a race that included a scary wreck involving Mike Skinner for his 40th career CWTS victory. Kyle Busch finished second, followed by Matt Crafton in third, Ryan Newman in fourth, and Terry Cook in fifth.

Coming Up:

The Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series hold their annual Memorial Day weekend events at Lowes’ Motor Speedway. Also, don’t forget to tune in to the 93rd running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.

Bruce Knoll, 17, of Eldora, can be contacted by email at bknolljr4cmcherald@yahoo.com

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