{"id":4512,"date":"2011-02-22T21:53:37","date_gmt":"2011-02-23T02:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9076"},"modified":"2011-02-22T21:53:37","modified_gmt":"2011-02-23T02:53:37","slug":"tony-stewart-breath-fresh-air-phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/tony-stewart-breath-fresh-air-phoenix\/","title":{"rendered":"TONY STEWART – A Breath of Fresh Air at Phoenix"},"content":{"rendered":"

TONY STEWART – A Breath of Fresh Air at Phoenix<\/strong><\/p>\n

KANNAPOLIS, N.C., (Feb. 22, 2011) \u2013 From the hallowed grounds of Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway to the foot of Monument Hill, which way back in 1864 was the geographical starting point for what became the State of Arizona in 1912, Tony Stewart and his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series brethren are oh-so-ready to settle into a bit of racing normalcy.<\/p>\n

The season-opening Speedweeks at Daytona may offer stock car\u2019s ultimate prize in the form of the Daytona 500\u2019s Harley J. Earl Trophy, but it\u2019s also nine solid days and nights of full-throttle activity on and off the racetrack that makes three-day events such as this weekend\u2019s Subway Fresh Fit 500k at Phoenix International Raceway a breath of fresh air.
\n
\nFor Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot\/Mobil 1 Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing, every trip to the legendary facility west of Phoenix is a welcome part of the schedule. This one, however, comes for the first time on the heels of the Daytona 500 after being moved from the original April date it assumed when Phoenix was awarded a second event to go with its traditional November spot on the NASCAR calendar. And, it will be the last one before the track undergoes a $15 million facelift \u2013 including repaving and slightly reconfiguring its quirky mile oval \u2013 immediately following Sunday\u2019s 312-lap race.<\/p>\n

The 47-year-old racetrack, with the 150-foot Monument Hill standing majestically to the east just outside turns three and four, will be repaved for the first time since 1990 and renovated for the first time since 2003, when the familiar Goodyear Bridge over turn four was replaced by an access tunnel. The new, high-tech racing surface will be variably banked in all four turns, as well as in its unique backstretch dogleg, and the dogleg will be moved outward 95 feet and will have its radius tightened from 800 to 500 feet. It\u2019s all in the name of side-by-side racing, the kind sister track Homestead-Miami Speedway became known for after a similar repaving project.<\/p>\n

Monument Hill, by the way, is a historic place by its own right that was designated by the U.S. Geological Survey as an anchor point for what was then the Territory of Arizona a full century before Phoenix International Raceway came to be. Located at the south side of the Gila River and the mouth of the Salt River, Monument Hill is surrounded by some of Arizona\u2019s most fertile farmland, and it was declared the starting point for all Arizona survey efforts in 1864, as declared by a brass and aluminum marker at its summit. Today, its western slope is a popular viewing spot during race weekends.<\/p>\n

Stewart\u2019s history at the foot of Monument Hill is a rich one, as well. He was victorious at Phoenix during his rookie Sprint Cup season of 1999, and he has a win, seven top-fives, nine top-10s and has led a total of 327 laps in his 18 career Sprint Cup starts there. His average Sprint Cup finish at Phoenix is 12th, and he has a lap completion rate of 99.8 percent.<\/p>\n

On top of all that, there is perhaps no driver who has logged more laps at Phoenix than Stewart. He\u2019s competed at the mile oval in Sprint Cup cars, NASCAR Nationwide Series cars, Indy cars, Supermodifieds and USAC Midget and Silver Crown cars. Add up Stewart\u2019s laps spent testing at the desert mile, and Stewart is in a league of his own.<\/p>\n

So, after enduring the rigors of these most recent Speedweeks at Daytona, there\u2019s nothing like hitting the familiar surroundings this weekend at stock car racing\u2019s \u201cJewel of the Desert\u201d in Arizona.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TONY STEWART – A Breath of Fresh Air at Phoenix KANNAPOLIS, N.C., (Feb. 22, 2011) \u2013 From the hallowed grounds of Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway to the foot of Monument Hill, which way back in 1864 was the geographical starting point for what became the State of Arizona in 1912, Tony Stewart and his NASCAR […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[15775],"class_list":["post-4512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}