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Tony Stewart has been under a lot of pressure the last few days.
But Smoke hopes a trip to Richmond International raceway will be just the answer to unwind a little.
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| Tony Stewart says Richmond is his favorite track. (AP) |
Stewart is no doubt already tired of answering questions and talking about his future plans. So the best possible way to forget about all those off-track stories will be to climb behind the wheel of his car and race at his favorite track -- which just happens to be Richmond International Raceway, site of Saturday night's 10th race of the Sprint Cup season.
"It is my favorite track," Stewart said. "It's not one of them, it's the favorite track of mine on the circuit. I've won two Truck races and three Cup races there. It's where I got my first win. It's definitely a place I enjoy coming to, and considering how it factors into the Chase, it's definitely an important stop for us."
Saturday night's race might not be as important as the annual September Richmond stop, which sets up the 10-race Chase championship stretch, in terms of points.
But after last week's disappointing ending in Talladega, where he led a race-high 61 laps only to be knocked out in a late crash, Stewart sees this race as significant.
"We don't settle for anything less than winning races," said Stewart who finished 38th in Talladega. "When we know that we let one slip away; that's something that we do let ourselves get down about, but that's also what got us 32 wins and two championships. We have such a high standard of what we feel our performance should be on the race track. I think that shows the caliber team that we have."
It's easy to see why Richmond is Stewart's favorite track when you look at his record at the .75-mile speedway.
He has won three Cup races, including his first career series win in his 1999 rookie year, and two Craftsman Truck Series events at RIR. Stewart has led 792 laps at Richmond, nearly 11 percent of his 7,192 lap total.
"We're looking forward to getting back to Richmond," Stewart smiled.
So is his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, the Virginia native who has another home game Saturday night.
Hamlin grew up racing at the weekly short tracks that populate the Richmond area and has always considered the RIR state fairgrounds speedway his base, just as stable mate Stewart calls the Indianapolis Motor Speedway home.
"Richmond, I mean, that is in the woods of my hometown right there, 15 minutes away," Hamlin said. "And so, yeah, I'm going to have a lot of friends and family out there. So everyone knows that this is my Indy, I guess you could say, as far as Tony's concerned. So we'll see how it turns out. We always seem to run well there."
In fact, over the past five Richmond races, Hamlin's average finishing position stands at 3.6 -- the best in the Cup series.
Hamlin rolls into Richmond on an upswing, and after a mediocre start to the year, has put together a solid string of finishes that have moved him into the top five in the standings. Hamlin has ripped off four consecutive top-five finishes, including a win at Martinsville and back-to-back third-place finishes at Phoenix and Talladega.
But despite that surge, Hamlin still feels as if he's unnoticed by some media and fans, who focus on his two high-profile teammates, Kyle Busch and Stewart.
"It's just motivation when we don't get the press that I feel like we deserve," Hamlin said. "Yeah, Kyle, he's definitely won a couple of races this year. We've won a race. And the last five races we've been the hottest team. I mean, we've never finished out of the top six.
"I'm fine with taking a back seat to those guys and showing up on the race track," he says.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. will show up at the track where he scored his last Cup win, when he took the checkered flag in May 2006. He is now on a 71-race winless streak.
"The last time I won was at Richmond, seems like forever ago, but I try not to think about it," said Earnhardt, who outran Hamlin to the checkered flag that night. "I don't want to be thinking of how long it's been since a win. Knowing we have a shot at it every week and something or another happens can make it frustrating. We couldn't be doing anything different to prepare -- the team and everyone at Hendrick has been working so hard. It will happen."