Stewart-Haas Racing on the right track

MARTINSVILLE — Stewart-Haas Racing drivers Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman were on opposite ends of the spectrum, as far as their success goes, coming into Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500.

Stewart, in his first season as part-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, had three top 10s and was sitting seventh in points.

Newman’s results were quite the opposite. In the five races this year, Newman’s best finish was seventh at Bristol. Prior to that, he hadn’t recorded a top 20 and sat 32nd in the Sprint Cup standings.

That all changed Sunday when, in a race dominated by Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing, the small two-car operation recorded its first top 5 when Stewart finished third. Sunday also marked the first time both cars finished in the top 10, with Newman finishing a season-high sixth.

“Obviously, I’m really proud of our guys,” Stewart said. “Our teammate had a good day, finishing sixth. I’m proud of our day and we’re edging up closer. We’re not quite where we want to be six weeks into it, but we’re proud of where we’re at.”

“We had an awesome day, awesome for the organization,” he said. “I’m proud of our guys. We had great pit stops all day. We got behind a little but we were able to get that track position back. We fired off a good stop at the end.”

The teammates finished close, but Stewart had no indicator Newman was running as well as he was. After starting 27th and slipping all the way back to 37th early in the race, Newman’s U.S. Army Chevrolet chipped away at the field all day before capitalizing on a quick final pit stop and a late surge to finish three spots behind the team owner.

“We had to — I was in position to do it and I did,” Newman said of the late-race charge. “We put ourselves in that position, made the right moves and it worked. We’re progressively getting better. Each race has been better all year long. There’s something to be said for that.

“The pit stops were good — the bottom line is that we stayed headstrong and got our positioning back and got up to sixth,” he said.

“I honestly didn’t know until after we took the checkers,” Stewart said of Newman’s performance. “I never saw him during the day, which was good. We stay around the top 5 all day. Not seeing him was a good thing, because that meant he was still on the lead lap, was still coming and gaining spots. On a caution every now and then I could see where he was track position-wise. But I had no idea he had such a strong run right there at the end to get sixth.”

With Stewart finishing consistently in the top 10 and Newman’s success in the last two races, it may seem that a lot of the factors that go into fielding a competitive race team are coming together for Stewart-Haas, but Stewart feels the chemistry has been there for awhile.

“Yeah, I mean, I don’t know that it’s really gelling,” Stewart said. “We’ve been like that from day one. It’s just kind of figuring out, you know? Every week when we make changes, we know how much it affects us percentage-wise. That’s things that each week as it goes on, it makes it a little easier.”

After their most successful afternoon of the year, both drivers feel that the young team is very close to becoming a factor every race.

“You know, it’s coming. It just takes time,” Stewart said. “It’s like we say every Monday in our competition meeting, ‘We just have to build a database first.’ Once we get that established, then I think the second time we come around, we’re going to be a little better yet.”

“We had two Stewart-Haas cars finish in the top 10 today,” Newman said. “Hopefully that’s a sign of things to come.”