With a daring pass with two laps to go, Stewart won Saturday night’s All-Star Race at Concord, N.C., with his co-owner Gene Haas watching, back for his first race since late 2007 after serving a 16-month sentence for federal tax fraud. It was Stewart’s first win in the All-Star Race and only the second time an owner-driver has won the event.
“The gamble was for Gene Haas, he’s there with us tonight,” Stewart said. “Man, I tell you, he’s not going to miss a week now. He gets here and we win the race.” Los Angeles Times
“I got to thank our fans,” Stewart said. “When I got over there in (turn) two and came to the frontstretch, the response from this crowd was awesome.”
“It’s awesome,” Stewart said. “I’ve been very fortunate as a car owner with the USAC cars and winning championships and winning the Knoxville Nationals championship with our World of Outlaws teams. The most fun part about it from the ownership side was getting some of these guys to Victory Lane that have never been there before.” Kansas City Star
Stewart passed Matt Kenseth with two laps to go of a thrilling final 10-lap shootout to win his first All-Star event in 11 previous starts. It was the first victory since he left Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of last year, after two championships and 10 successful seasons, to become co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing.
Kenseth finished second and was followed by Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards. The Associated Press
“I can’t believe he gave me the bottom,” Stewart said of his inside pass for the lead. “I just cannot believe he gave me the bottom. But I’ll take it. Matt is a guy you can trust. We got to second there, got by the No. 18 [Kyle Busch] and I thought, ‘All right, we have a shot at this thing.’
“We weren’t that good until the last run. [Crew chief] Darian Grubb, I mean he made some awesome calls there at the end to get us where I could drive that thing the way I could. Man, it was fast.”
Adjustments during the 10-minute break before the final segment made Kenseth’s car better but not good enough to keep Stewart behind him.
“We were too loose all night, and we were really slow on restarts,” said Kenseth, who led the field to the green flag with five laps remaining after caution for debris in Turn 3 slowed the field for the final time. “For long runs we were pretty good. During the break we had to tighten the car up a lot, which we did—put more air in the tires and did all the things we needed to do for a short run.
“It was actually pretty good for five or six laps, but with all the short runs and cautions [three after the start of the final segment] and getting the body banged in a little bit, it just hurt it, and with three or four [laps] to go, it started getting really tight and wouldn’t turn at all that last lap. And Tony just rolled on by.” NASCAR.com
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