Now that he’s off Dale Earnhardt Jr.‘s back, where does the monkey jump to now?
Tony Stewart seems like a good candidate.
Though it hasn’t reached the epic proportions of Earnhardt’s 76-race winless skid, Stewart left Michigan without a trip to Victory Lane in his past 29 races.
It’s even more surprising considering his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin have combined to win five of the season’s first 15 events.
After losing the lead on the final lap of the Daytona 500, the season has been one of struggles and bad luck for the No. 20 team.
It has been so bad that Sunday’s fifth-place run marked just his second top 10 finish in the past eight races.
“As bad as we’ve been the last couple of weeks, this feels like a win,” Stewart said. “We’ve just been frustrated all year.”
The timing was good for another reason—Stewart is donating his portion of the $136,986 winnings to the American Red Cross in his hometown of Columbus, Ind., which was recently ravaged by flooding.
“I’m happy we got a top five for everyone in Columbus, Indiana, and that we can do something to help our community out,” Stewart said.
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