 |
 |
 |
|
If you think Tony Stewart is prone to crabbiness now, just watch what will happen if he becomes a Sprint Cup owner-driver.
It's no secret Stewart is about as competitive a driver as there is in all of motorsports and when he's not challenging for wins and championships, he can be about as testy as they come.
|
|
| For Tony Stewart, who loves to win, Joe Gibbs Racing is the place for him. (AP) |
Right now, Stewart is with the top team in NASCAR as JGR has surpassed mighty Hendrick Motorsports as the premier organization in the Sprint Cup garage.
JGR's turnaround of the Toyota program has been nothing short of amazing and the team has single-handedly taken the manufacturer from the depths of one of the most embarrassing season's on record last year to a championship contender in 2008.
Led by Kyle Busch, off to one of the hottest starts in NASCAR history, rising superstar Denny Hamlin and Stewart, the Gibbs group has come out of the gate fast and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
All three drivers are securely in the top 12 in the point standings and JGR has three wins in the season's first nine races.
However none of those has come from Stewart.
While Busch has visited Victory Lane twice and Hamlin picked up a win at his home track in Martinsville last month, Stewart hasn't seen a checkered flag since Watkins Glen last August.
That's not quite Dale Earnhardt Jr. drought territory, with Junior's winless stretch now standing at 71 races and counting, but for Stewart it's a significant dry spell.
And perhaps that's part of the reason Stewart is contemplating a change.
Stewart isn't the headliner at JGR these days with that honor belonging to Busch, who has seven wins in one of NASCAR's three top divisions (Cup, Nationwide and trucks) and has a distinct opportunity to win championships in at least three series this year.
Hamlin is starting to come into his own, showing prowess on intermediate tracks and superspeedways as well as the short tracks where he started his career.
