Watkins Glen, N.Y. — A broken alternator couldn't keep Tony Stewart from blowing away the field one more time.
Faced with a problem right at the end of a race he dominated, Stewart simply snookered the opposition on the final two restarts and cruised to his fifth victory in seven races. And his dominant performance Sunday at Watkins Glen International padded his lead in the NASCAR Nextel Cup standings.
Still, he had to hope he had enough juice left after a late caution forced two extra laps. Stewart radioed in that he had an alternator problem, forcing him to shut off some systems and switch to a backup battery. Then he sprinted away from Robby Gordon on the final restart.
"The hard thing is, Robby Gordon is really good getting into turn one," Stewart said. "The big thing was to get a good restart and not be concerned with him."
Stewart did just that, leaving Gordon as nothing more than a valiant competitor who charged from his 39th starting spot all the way to Stewart's rear bumper with two laps to go. But Stewart made him slow down just before the restart.
Stewart used the same tactic to get away from Boris Said on the 76th lap.
"I had great restarts all day, but Tony got me, and I got bogged down," explained Said, who quickly lost the second spot to Gordon.
Comments
LJWorld.com doesn’t necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full policy. Also, read about banned accounts and harassing comments.