It’s déjà vu all over again as Tony Stewart comes into the penultimate race before the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with a tenuous hold on his top-10 point standing.
Last year, Stewart entered the AdvoCare 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway 10th in points, barely above the cut for the 10 guaranteed spots in the Chase, and coming into this year’s race at Atlanta, the driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet is again 10th in points. In both cases, a lackluster summer stretch where Stewart scored only three top-10 finishes between the Fourth of July weekend race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and the late August race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway forced Stewart to spend more time looking over his shoulder than straight ahead.
Of course, Stewart crafted the rally of all rallies in 2011, and it began at Atlanta where he gained five spots in the final 10 laps to score a remarkable third-place finish. Stewart then finished seventh in the next race at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway – the cutoff race for the 10-race Chase – to secure his spot in the Case for the seventh time since its inception in 2004.
All of that was a precursor to what Stewart unleashed in the Chase, where he won a record five races to take the championship in a tiebreaker over Carl Edwards, as Stewart’s five victories trumped Edwards’ one.
Stewart comes into this year’s AdvoCare 500 in much the same fashion, but with one major difference – he’s won three times already this season.
In 2011, Stewart was winless entering the Chase, and many wondered – including him – if he was just taking up a spot in the 12-driver lineup. In 2012, Stewart is in a four-way tie for the No. 1 Chase seed, as he, Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin each have three wins thus far.
But for Stewart, whose summer swoon has seen him drop from fifth to 10th in points since winning July 7 at Daytona, a departure from the top-10 would be disappointing. He would still make the Chase by claiming the first of two wild card spots, as positions 11 and 12 are awarded to the two drivers between 11th and 20th in points with the most wins, but he’d lose the nine bonus points he’s earned to start the Chase (three bonus points for each win), for only the top-10 in points are allowed to keep any bonus points they’ve accrued.
However, Stewart started last year with no bonus points because he was winless entering the Chase, yet he still managed to walk away with his third Sprint Cup championship. And now as a potentially similar situation greets Stewart, baseball great Yogi Berra’s famous line of, “It’s déjà vu all over again” is incredibly appropriate as the Chase beckons.
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