KANNAPOLIS, N.C., (Sept. 28, 2011) \u2013 Back in the day, Tony Stewart gave George Thorogood a run for his money as the real Delaware Destroyer.<\/p>\n
Wilmington, Del., native Thorogood, and his band, the Delaware Destroyers, pumped out such hits as \u201cBad to the Bone\u201d and a resounding cover of Bo Diddley\u2019s \u201cWho Do You Love\u201d en route to 16 studio albums, two of which went Platinum while six more went Gold.
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\nBut in the early 2000s, it was Stewart who seemed to be the real Delaware Destroyer, as he was bad to the bone at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.<\/p>\n
From the time Stewart rolled around the high-banked, 1-mile oval as a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rookie in 1999 and then on through the 2004 season, his worst finish was 11th. And during that span, Stewart scored two wins \u2013 back-to-back, no less, in 2000 \u2013 and notched eight top-fives and 11 top-10s in 12 starts, all while leading a whopping 1,066 laps, or 22.2 percent of the 4,800 laps available. If Stewart were asked the question, \u201cWho Do You Love?\u201d his answer would be \u201cDover.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, like Austin Powers, he somehow lost his mojo at Dover, for since 2005, Stewart has only led six laps and has just three top-10s with a best finish of second in June 2009.<\/p>\n
Now \u201cDelaware Destroyer\u201d takes on new meaning, for the aptly named \u201cMonster Mile\u201d could potentially destroy Stewart\u2019s championship chances if he has a run like he did when the series last visited Dover in May, where he started 27th and finished six laps down in 29th.<\/p>\n
But if there ever was a team that could rally from such a performance, it\u2019s Stewart and the No. 14 Office Depot\/Mobil 1 squad of Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), for they\u2019ve been rallying all season.<\/p>\n
After round No. 3 of the 36-race season, Stewart and Co. were atop the point standings thanks to three straight races where they contended for the win. Then, adversity bit the No. 14 team, where they went from challenging for wins to enduring challenging top-10s. By the time they entered the midpoint of the season, Stewart was 12th in points, and with no wins, was in danger of missing the Chase for the Sprint Cup.<\/p>\n
But quietly, the Office Depot\/Mobil 1 team began to rally. Five top-10s were scored in the next nine races, including a strong second-place finish in July at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon to SHR teammate Ryan Newman. By the time the Chase cutoff race at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway was over, Stewart was ninth in points and in the 10-race Chase for the seventh time of his career.<\/p>\n
Once in the Chase, the mojo Stewart had been searching for all season long returned. He knocked down his first Sprint Cup win of the season and the 40th of his career when he won the Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. It put Stewart second in points, just seven markers out of the top spot, heading into the second Chase race at New Hampshire.<\/p>\n
In his return to New Hampshire, Stewart finished one spot better than he had in July. The victory gave Stewart back-to-back wins for the eighth time in his Sprint Cup career, with the previous occurrence coming in July 2007 when he won back-to-back races at Chicagoland and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It also allowed for a 14-point swing, with Stewart taking the lead in the Chase standings by seven points over second-place Kevin Harvick.<\/p>\n
Now, Dover looms again. It\u2019s the third race of the Chase, and Stewart enters it with a good bit of trepidation, but thanks to his recent win streak, plenty of momentum. His team\u2019s uncanny ability to rally, as demonstrated over the past four races where they\u2019ve finished third, seventh, first and first, is what has allowed them to battle back from adversity and remake themselves into championship contenders.<\/p>\n
As a two-time Sprint Cup champion (2002 and 2005), Stewart knows that titles are hard-earned, and with 13 years of Sprint Cup experience in his pocket, he fully expects Dover to test the resolve of him and his race team. But for a team that\u2019s been tested all season long, it\u2019s just another performance review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KANNAPOLIS, N.C., (Sept. 28, 2011) \u2013 Back in the day, Tony Stewart gave George Thorogood a run for his money as the real Delaware Destroyer. Wilmington, Del., native Thorogood, and his band, the Delaware Destroyers, pumped out such hits as \u201cBad to the Bone\u201d and a resounding cover of Bo Diddley\u2019s \u201cWho Do You Love\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[15775,4148],"class_list":["post-8112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-tony-stewart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8112","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=8112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}