Points leader Tony Stewart benefited from the rained-out qualifying session at Pocono Raceway this weekend, but not for long.
Stewart spun and wrecked his No. 14 Chevrolet during Saturday’s first practice session while exiting the tunnel turn.
“I went off into the grass, but I hit the right-front of the splitter with, I guess, one of the access roads or something and ripped the whole nose off of it,” said Stewart, who then pulled his car into the garage to allow crew member to pull off needed parts, shocks, etc. to be place on his backup car.
Since he was forced to pull the backup car off the trailer, Stewart—the first owner/driver to lead the point standings since Alan Kulwicki in November 1992—will lose his pole position and start at the back of the field Sunday.
Still, he is confident in his crew and with his car.
“Yeah, I mean if you look at how Jeff Gordon ran last week [at Dover International Speedway] and ended up with a bad part there for a little bit, but had a good car,” he said. “We’ll be the same thing. This car will be good. It’s just that we’re losing on the race track right now.”
With six top-five finishes and a series-leading nine top-10s, Stewart sits atop the points by 46 markers over four-time champ Gordon. In the first practice session, Stewart was third-fastest at 166.701 mph and slowed slightly to 164.82 in the final session, placing him sixth-fastest on the chart.
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