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Home Depot Racing: Brickyard Team Report

Wednesday July 23, 2008

 

TONY STEWART
Home Depot Racing Team Report
Round 20 of 36 – Allstate 400 at the Brickyard – Indianapolis
Car No.: 20 – Joe Gibbs Racing Home Depot Toyota Camry
Teammates: Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry and Kyle Busch in the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry
Primary Team Members:
Driver: Tony Stewart
Crew Chief: Greg Zipadelli
Car Chief: Jason Shapiro
Engine Builder: Mark Cronquist
Engine Specialist: Jarrad Egert (pronounced “Egg-ert”)
Spotter: Mark Robertson
Over-The-Wall Crew Members:
Gas Man: Jeff “Gooch” Patterson
Front Tire Changer: Ira-Jo Hussey
Catch Can: Brian “Shaggy” Larson
Front Tire Carrier: Tom Dean
Windshield: Scott Geerts (pronounced “Gurtz”)
Rear Tire Changer: Kyle Turner
Jackman: Jason Lee
Rear Tire Carrier: Eric Groen (pronounced “Grow-in”)
Other Crew Members:
Truck Drivers: Tom “Thumper” McCrimmon and Scott “Scooter” Crowell
Shock Specialist: Dave Hansen
Tire Specialists: Jerold Shires and Bill Byrne (pronounced “Burn”)
Engineer: Adam Stevens
Tony Stewart / No. 20 Team History at Indianapolis Motor Speedway:
Year
Event
Start
Finish
Status/Laps
Laps Led
Earnings
2007
Allstate 400 at the Brickyard
14
1
Running, 160/160
65
$488,111
2006
Allstate 400 at the Brickyard
32
8
Running, 160/160
0
$237,111
2005
Allstate 400 at the Brickyard
22
1
Running, 160/160
44
$554,661
2004
×Brickyard 400
24
5
Running, 161/161
0
$247,278
2003
Brickyard 400
15
12
Running, 160/160
60
$224,728
2002
Brickyard 400
1
12
Running, 160/160
43
$185,953
2001
Brickyard 400
9
17
Running, 160/160
3
$119,060
2000
Brickyard 400
18
5
Running, 160/160
0
$189,475
1999
Brickyard 400
11
7
Running, 160/160
0
$162,635
× Race length extended due to green-white-checker finish.
Tony Stewart’s Indianapolis 500 History:
Year
Event
Start
Finish
Status/Laps
Laps Led
Earnings
2001
Indianapolis 500
7
6
Running, 200/200
13
$218,850
1999
Indianapolis 500
24
9
Running, 196/200
0
$186,670
1998
Indianapolis 500
4
33
Engine, 22/200
1
$220,250
1997
Indianapolis 500
2
5
Running, 200/200
64
$345,056
1996
Indianapolis 500
1
24
Engine, 82/200
44
$222,053
Tony Stewart’s IROC History at Indianapolis Motor Speedway:
Year
Event
Start
Finish
Status/Laps
Laps Led
Earnings
2002
IROC XXVI
10
11
Running, 40/40
0
N/A
2001
IROC XXV
4
2
Running, 40/40
8
N/A
2000
IROC XXIV
10
3
Running, 40/40
0
N/A
more
Page 2
Home Depot Racing Team Report – Allstate 400 at the Brickyard
Page Two
Chassis No. 216:
This car made its debut earlier in June at Pocono, where it qualified 12
th
, led 14 laps and was headed toward a solid top-10 finish before a late-race pit
road speeding penalty relegated it to a 35
th
-place result. In preparation for its debut race, Chassis No. 216 was tested at Pocono May 27-28. Pocono’s
flat track characteristics translate well to the long straightaways and flat corners of New Hampshire, which led to the team’s decision to bring Chassis No.
216 to make its second career start at New Hampshire. The decision proved to be a wise one, as Chassis No. 216 led twice for a race-high 132 laps and
was poised for the win. But when rain cut the race 17 laps short of its scheduled 301-lap distance, Stewart was caught outside the top-10 as other teams
gambled that they’d either have enough fuel to go the distance or that rain would end the race prematurely. All were ahead of Stewart when rain washed
over the 1.058-mile oval, relegating Stewart and Chassis No. 216 to an undeserved 13
th
-place finish.
Year
Event
Start
Finish
Status/Laps
Laps Led
Earnings
2008
Pocono (Spring)
12
35
Running, 199/200
14
$112,561
New Hampshire (Spring)
28
13
Running, 284/284
132
$132,211
Joe Gibbs Racing Indianapolis Anecdotes:
• Joe Gibbs Racing has three Sprint Cup wins at Indianapolis:
Ø 2007 race was won by Stewart
Ø 2005 race was won by Stewart
Ø 2000 race was won by former Joe Gibbs Racing driver Bobby Labonte
• Joe Gibbs Racing has one Sprint Cup pole at Indianapolis:
Ø 2002 race pole was won by Stewart
Notes of Interest:
• The Allstate 400 at the Brickyard will mark Stewart’s 340
th
career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start and his 10
th
career Sprint Cup start at
Indianapolis.
• Stewart is currently 10
th
in the Sprint Cup point standings with 2,305 points, 576 markers behind series leader and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle
Busch. Stewart gained two positions as a result of his fifth-place finish July 12 at Chicagoland. At this point last year Stewart was sixth in the
standings with 2,429 points, 482 markers behind series leader Jeff Gordon. Stewart has scored 124 fewer points this year than he did last year
heading into the 20
th
race of the season.
• Stewart has scored six top-fives and nine top-10s in the 19 Sprint Cup races run this season. He has a career total of 32 wins, 125 top-fives, 200
top-10s and 10,134 laps led in 339 career Sprint Cup races. His last Sprint Cup win came 33 races ago at Watkins Glen.
• In nine career Sprint Cup races at Indianapolis, Stewart has two wins, four top-fives and six top-10s. He has only one finish outside the top-12 – a
17
th
-place result in 2001. His average Sprint Cup finish at Indianapolis is 7.5.
• Stewart has raced Sprint Cup cars (9x), Indy cars (5x) and IROC cars (3x) to earn a total of 17 Indianapolis starts.
• After having endured 14 disappointments at Indy – six in Sprint Cup, five in the IRL IndyCar Series and three in IROC – before finally winning in a
stock car at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2005, Tony Stewart only had to wait a year and 209 days to score his second victory in the
Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. Stewart led seven times for a race-high 65 laps en route to a dominating win in last year’s race, as he crossed the
finish line 2.982 seconds ahead of 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner and then Sprint Cup rookie Juan Pablo Montoya.
• Prior to his 2005 win in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, Stewart’s best Sprint Cup finish at Indy had been fifth (2004 & 2000), which was also his
best IRL IndyCar Series finish at Indy (1997). His best IROC finish at Indy is second (2001).
• Stewart has led a total of 345 laps in his 17 Indianapolis starts (13.5 percent of a possible 2,561 laps). Two-hundred-and-fifteen laps have
been led in a Sprint Cup car to place Stewart second in laps led at Indianapolis among active Sprint Cup drivers, while 122 laps have
been led in an Indy car and eight laps have been led in an IROC car.
• Stewart won his sixth career Sprint Cup pole for the 2002 Brickyard 400, and in doing so, became the first driver to have started from
the pole and led the first lap in both the Indianapolis 500 (1996) and the Brickyard 400. Stewart’s average speed for his Indianapolis 500
pole was 233.100 mph, while his Brickyard 400 pole came at an average speed of 182.960 mph – a difference of over 50 mph.
• Stewart currently has 10 poles to his Sprint Cup resume, with the last one coming 96 races ago at Martinsville in October 2005.
• “Local Boy Does Good” – Stewart grew up 45 minutes from Indianapolis in the towns of Columbus and Rushville.
• After practice concludes on Friday, Stewart will run – literally – out of the race track and to a waiting car where he’ll go to the airport to catch
a flight to Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. There, Stewart will compete in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series Subway 50, a 50-lap
dirt late model race. When Stewart isn’t wearing his driver’s helmet, he’ll wear his promoter’s hat, for Stewart owns the half-mile dirt oval.
Stewart bought Eldora Speedway from Earl Baltes in November 2004. This year marks the track’s 54
th
anniversary.
• Home Depot store No. 4930, located in Rhinelander, Wis., and Home Depot store No. 4502, located in Rutland, Vt., will be represented on the lower
rear quarterpanel of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota during the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. Store Nos. 4930 and 4502 were judged to be the
outstanding stores of the past two weeks, thereby earning their places on the No. 20 car.
– The Home Depot is NASCAR’s Home Improvement Warehouse –

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This report was provided by an outside PR source and posted by Ren Jonsin.

 

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