NASCAR: Stewart Hopes To Make It Four In A Row For The No. 20
May 08, 2008
CIA Stock Photo, Inc.
The Gibbs team has won the last five Nationwide Series races, with Kyle Busch victorious at Texas, Phoenix and Mexico City; Tony Stewart winning at Talladega and Denny Hamlin earning his dream victory at his home track of Richmond.
Add to those five the two wins to start the season when Stewart went back-to-back at Daytona and California, and Joe Gibbs has seven of the first 11 trophies handed out this season.
But maybe even more impressive is that the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Toyota has been to Victory Lane the last three races—with three different drivers: Busch in Mexico, Stewart in Talladega and Hamlin in Richmond.
Stewart hopes to make it four in a row for the No. 20 team Friday night in the Diamond Hill Plywood 200 at Darlington Raceway and if past history is any indication, Stewart will do just fine.
This has been a season of firsts for Stewart. He has more wins this season than his entire Nationwide career and his two poles tie a career high in the series. Plus, there aren’t many tracks on the schedule the two-time Cup champion hasn’t won a Cup or Nationwide race at—four to be exact—but he knocked two of those off the list earlier this season.
This will be Stewart’s first look at the “new” Darlington. The track was repaved after last season’s race and there is a lot for these drivers to learn in a short amount of time. With seven practices scheduled, Stewart hopes driving in both the Nationwide and Cup series events will be beneficial.
“If everything is going all right with both cars and it’s not a cluster, yeah, it’s a great opportunity,” Stewart said. “If it’s a cluster, then it’s a bad opportunity to be running both series. You can potentially learn about what the track’s characteristics are as far as how the balance of the car is going to change through the course of the race. It could certainly be an advantage this week.”
“We’ve got a team that finished second in the points last year and has a shot to win it this year. I want to go out and race and be conscious of that every time I’m in the car for them.”
