The Big One may have dropped last Sunday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, but just like when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, nothing is over until Tony Stewart decides it is. And despite being seventh in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, 46 points out of first, it ain’t over now. ‘Cause when the going gets tough, the tough get going, as Stewart proved last year when he rallied from seventh after Round No. 5 of the 10-race Chase to take the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship five races later at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Stewart’s run to his third career Sprint Cup title was epic, as the driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing overcame a 24-point deficit to sit atop the Chase standings after the checkered flag waved at Homestead. Stewart won the championship in a tiebreaker over Carl Edwards, as his five wins in 2011 trumped Edwards’ lone victory.
That inspiring trek has given nearly every Chase driver renewed inspiration this year, including Stewart. The only thing lacking from Stewart’s magical run to the championship was a call by legendary announcer Vin Scully, who could have easily used his line from the first game of the 1988 World Series, where in the bottom of the ninth inning, with two outs and a runner on base, the Detroit Tigers’ Kirk Gibson homered off Oakland A’s closer Dennis Eckersley to rally from a 4-3 deficit to beat the A’s 5-4, prompting Scully to say: “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.”
Stewart made the impossible happen last year, and as he looks to trap lightning in a bottle again, he has renewed competition from 11 other drivers who believe that they too can win this year’s Sprint Cup no matter the odds, as six races still remain before a champion is crowned.
With the wild-card race that is Talladega behind them, the 12 Chase drivers have their destinies back in their hands, unlike at Talladega, where one’s result can change in the blink of an eye. Just ask Stewart, who led lap 188, but found himself tumbling upside down on lap 189 – the final lap – which relegated him to a 22nd-place finish. Instead of securing 44 points, Stewart only tallied 23 points.
Saturday night’s 500-lapper at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway provides the next opportunity for Stewart to make up that lost ground, and with one win, four top-threes, six top-fives, 12 top-10s and a total of 695 laps led in 27 career, point-paying Sprint Cup starts at the 1.5-mile oval, there won’t be any laying around stuff by Stewart and his Mobil 1/Office Depot team.
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