Long Pond, Pa. ? Tony Stewart isn’t shy, and sometimes that gets him in trouble. But at least he speaks his mind, which in today’s NASCAR climate can be as rare as a second anniversary for J-Lo.

Stewart took a swipe at NASCAR on Saturday when he challenged the governing body’s latest pronouncement that technology will determine a driver’s position when the caution flag comes out.

“Why don’t they do like every other series and go back to the last scored lap?” Stewart asked. “Every race fan across the country understands that rule — if they’re a real race fan. I would go back to the last completed lap. It’s done that way in every series I’ve raced before NASCAR.”

This is what makes Stewart Stewart. He’s not afraid to look a gift horse — in this case NASCAR — in the mouth and tell it what he thinks, a self-assuredness that comes from, if anything, winning. Stewart has won everywhere he’s raced — go-carts, sprint cars, open wheel and stock cars; he’s been rookie of the year in four different racing genres; and, at age 33, is in the hunt for his second NEXTEL Cup championship. He even owns the car driven by USAC Triple Crown winner J.J. Yeley.

But the defending Pocono 500 champion has yet to win in 2004.

Twice he’s finished second, including last week in Dover. He’s comfortably in fourth place in the NEXTEL Cup standings, meaning if all goes reasonably well he’ll be among the 10 drivers (and whoever else is within 400 points of the leader) who qualify for the 10-race playoffs at the end of the season.

“It’s a good feeling to come back to a track we’ve had some success at,” said Stewart, who qualified eighth and will start in the fourth row of today’s race. “If we do qualify well, we race extremely well. Even though we weren’t on the front row, eighth was very exciting for me.”

That may be Stewart speaking his mind, or he could just be putting a good spin on Friday’s qualifying. When he won here last year, he started in fourth.