Joliet, IL (Best E Casino) - Tony Stewart passed up new tires on the final pit stop and the strategy worked as he captured Sunday's USG Sheetrock 400 at the Chicagoland Speedway. The No.20 Home Depot Chevrolet driver crossed the finish line 1.727 seconds ahead of Matt Kenseth.
The victory was Stewart's first of the season and 30th of his Nextel Cup career.
"The Home Depot guys (pit crew) won us the race today," said Stewart. "They got us the track position we needed...Being out front, being in clean air was everything."
Pole winner Casey Mears brought the field to the green flag. Mears lasted until the end of the sixth lap when Martin Truex Jr. slid to the bottom of the track for the lead. Mears continued to drop as he complained of a tight car.
Meanwhile, Jimmie Johnson took off after Truex Jr. who had built a lead of nearly one second. He caught Truex Jr. on lap 17 and passed him two laps later.
Johnson's Chevrolet was working very well and by lap 28 his lead was 1.395 seconds and growing. He began to lap slower traffic and still his margin grew to two seconds. Johnson's pace was such that after 48 green-flag laps, there were just 28 cars on the lead lap.
Through the first round of green-flag pit stops and Johnson was still the leader. The only casualty was Dale Earnhardt Jr., who missed pit road and had to make an extra lap. He came out 13th after running sixth.
A Jeff Green spin sent everyone down pit lane, but this time there were different strategies used. Johnson came in first and left in 10th place after he took four tires. In front of him were drivers who took zero tires or two right-side tires.
Kevin Harvick and Reed Sorenson didn't come in at all and led the race. Newman came out first after his fuel only stop and was third on the track.
Harvick quickly built a four-second lead, but if there was another long green- flag run, he might be in some trouble. Johnson's four new tires were working and by lap 75 he was back up to seventh place.
On lap 85 Stewart, in second place, began to cut into Harvick's lead. Johnson was still on the move, now in fourth place. By lap 95 Stewart had cut the lead in half while Johnson, faster than both of them, was in third place and still flying. Stewart caught Harvick on lap 110 and when the No.29 pitted, the Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet took over the race lead.
The cars cycled through their pit stops and they returned to the track with Harvick leading Johnson and Stewart. But Johnson didn't like following Harvick and on lap 120 he passed underneath him for the lead.
At the mid-point of the 267-lap race, Johnson held a 0.876 second lead over Stewart and 3.963 seconds over a fading Harvick. Harvick continued to drop as Kyle Busch passed him as well.
Johnson and Stewart continued to show the way, building the lead to six seconds over third place as the field reached the 150-lap mark. Then Jamie McMurray slapped the way on lap 155 and Johnson's big lead disappeared in a split second.
Stewart beat Johnson off pit road to grab the lead as the race restarted on lap 160. With clean air Stewart began to pull away from Johnson until lap 165 when Robby Gordon spun into the outside wall.
Just like the last restart, Stewart and Johnson quickly separated themselves from the pack. By lap 185 they had built a gap of two seconds between themselves and third-place Kenseth.
On lap 187 Johnson went to the top of the track and drove around Stewart for the lead. Stewart didn't stay in second for long, it's not his style. A couple of laps later he zoomed back into first place and was still there after 200 laps were completed.
Dave Blaney brought out the caution flag when he blew a tire on lap 202 and slammed the wall. There were 63 laps remaining when cars pitted for what they hoped would be the final time. But with a maximum of 50-55 laps on a tank, teams would still need about eight more caution flag laps to reach the checkered flag.
The race went back to green on lap 207.
Stewart got off to a great restart and quickly built a half-second lead on Johnson. Meanwhile, both Earnhardt Jr. (power steering) and Truex Jr. (engine) had problems and were off the pace.
For the third time Stewart and Johnson built a big lead on the field. But trouble found Johnson on lap 223 as his right-rear tire exploded sending him into the turn three wall and ending his day.
Everyone took the opportunity to top off fuel and take it out of the equation. Stewart took about two seconds of fuel, barely stopping, before he was off. Kenseth, Kurt Busch and Harvick followed.
The green flag dropped with 37 laps to go. Stewart and Kenseth immediately jumped out front and Kenseth went to the bottom getting side-by-side with Stewart. But Stewart fought him off and Kenseth had to get back into line.
"We just didn't quite have the car," said Kenseth. "I got a run on him and we ran side-by-side, but just getting down into (turn) three I thought I was going to lose control and take out both of us."
Caution flags, for a J.J. Yeley crash and a Joe Nemechek spin, set up a 12-lap shootout for the win.
Stewart, Kenseth, Harvick and Carl Edwards easily cleared the lapped traffic and set up a four-man race to the checkered flag. Edwards got around Harvick, but was still more than one-and-a-half seconds behind the two leaders.
Stewart built his lead over Kenseth to 1.428 seconds with six laps to go and he was never challenged over the final half dozen laps.
Edwards, Harvick and Mears completed the top-five.
After a week off, the Nextel Cup Series will return on Sunday, July 29th at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
