Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Could Richmond be Tony Stewart’s first win as an owner-driver?

I have a large drawer full of cartoon sketches that have never been published. These are usually ideas I rejected or didn’t use because their shelf life expired.

Earlier this week, I was thumbing through some of these sketches, hoping to find some inspiration, and I came across an idea about Tony Stewart that I had considered at the beginning of this racing season. The cartoon suggested that as a Sprint Cup owner-driver, Stewart’s anger management team would be so large that it would need its own 18-wheeler. Given Stewart’s performance this season, it’s a good thing I shelved that idea.

Stewart has proven his doubters, who thought the learning curve for his new team would be large, to be wrong. He’s had a strong season so far and his performances seem to be improving every week. Could Richmond be his first win as an owner-driver?

Stewart has three wins in his Cup career at Richmond, including his first Cup win, and he finished second in his last race at the track. He has accomplished a total of six top-threes, eight top-fives and 14 top-10 finishes at Richmond. Stewart has also led a total of 815 laps at the track. Combine that with his six top-10 finishes so far this season and it’s safe to say that Stewart has a strong chance of visiting victory lane this Saturday night.

By the way, it has been 371 races since the last owner-driver won a Cup race. That was Ricky Rudd at Martinsville on Sept. 27, 1998.

Monday's Bloggity poll asked what was to blame for the last-lap wreck at Talladega: 68 percent blamed blocking, 18 percent blamed the yellow-line rule and 13 percent blamed restrictor plates.

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