Welcome back, Tony Stewart. We missed you.
Stewart is finally racing like a three-time Cup champion instead of a backpacker. Since Michigan in June, he has finished no worse than 11th, discounting the restrictor-plate chaos of Daytona, where he was set for a Top 10 run until he got loose on Lap 149 of the 161-lap race, hitting an outside wall. He finished 26th.
Otherwise, all good. Stewart _ who missed the first eight races of the season recuperating for an off-road-vehicle accident near Phoenix _ has a Chase-qualifying victory in his pocket (Sonoma) and has continued zipping along at a brisk pace.
He now has five Top 5s in the last seven races while scoring the second-most points of any driver in the last five races.
"That guy who is going to hang his helmet up at the end of the year, I keep having flashbacks to 2011, and he's running a hell of a lot better right now than he was during that championship season," said Larry McReynolds, Fox NASCAR analyst.
"Finally for first time in many years Tony is fairly healthy. He's comfortable personally and he's comfortable professionally."
Agreed.
"Anytime you get hurt like we did with our leg injury and everything that happened after that there is all speculation of why you are not running good," Stewart said recently. "You guys had asked the same question: Has that been a factor in it? It's been nice to kind of get it all put behind us and show everybody that is not what this is all about and that was not the factor."
