In The Pits: Stewart off to strong start as owner

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- In 284 races spanning seven years and 12 different drivers, Haas CNC Racing never sniffed success.

Its equipment was below par, its sponsorship was inadequate and its drivers started each race knowing they had no chance to win. Johnny Sauter came closest, fifth at Richmond in 2007. So a top-10 finish once in a while was a more realistic goal for the fledgling race team.

Then along came Tony Stewart.

Although few had high expectations for Stewart in his first season as majority owner at renamed Stewart-Haas Racing, Smoke is proving them wrong one week at a time. His third-place finish Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, coupled with teammate Ryan Newman's sixth-place run, showed that Stewart wasted no time revamping his team.

"You know, it's coming. It just takes time," Stewart said after his fourth top-10 finish in six races.

It became evident early that Stewart wasn't taking his latest venture lightly. He was lured from the comfort of Joe Gibbs Racing, where he won two championships in 10 successful seasons, for the challenge of tearing down Gene Haas' race team and rebuilding it from scratch.

He aggressively pursued the top talent in NASCAR. He used his wit and charm to draw sponsors that previously ignored the team. He scored Office Depot and Old Spice for himself, and the U.S. Army for Newman.

Stewart then persuaded Darian Grubb to leave Hendrick Motorsports and pulled Tony Gibson from Dale Earnhardt Inc., putting two NASCAR veterans atop his two pit boxes. Next came Bobby Hutchens, who left Richard Childress Racing to run Stewart's competition department.

With all the personnel in place, the team wasted no time proving itself.

Stewart was strong every time he hit the track at Daytona, and if a failed tire had not triggered an accident between Stewart and Newman in the final practice, Stewart might have contended for the season-opening Daytona 500. Although he finished eighth, it was proof that venturing out on his own had not cost Stewart a bit.

Newman was not as fortunate, slogging through a rough first month. He was 36th at Daytona and 28th the next week in California. Las Vegas and Atlanta were not much better, and Newman headed into the first off weekend of the season ranked 32nd in the standings.

It was maddening to Stewart, the car owner. He knew Newman's team had the same tools as he did but couldn't put together the one solid run to get things going.

Stewart-Haas Racing needed just one week off to regroup, though. Newman unloaded fast at Bristol two weeks ago and outpaced Stewart the entire weekend en route to a seventh-place finish. It was the confidence booster the team needed. The result carried into Martinsville, where Newman passed Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin for a season-best sixth-place finish.

In just two races, Newman has jumped all the way to 18th in the standings. Stewart, meanwhile, is seventh and in contention for a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

"I think Tony has put a lot of sweat equity into it," rival team owner Rick Hendrick said. "I think he's surprised a lot of people. I haven't been surprised because I know the dedication and what they've tried to do."

Hendrick is somewhat vested in Stewart's effort: He leases motors to SHR and is available for Stewart to use as a sounding board for ideas for his race team. He was unwavering in his preseason belief that Stewart would be a contender this year -- and win races -- despite all the naysayers who were certain he'd be humbled by the difficulties of running a team.

But he took everything he learned in 10 years working under Joe Gibbs and applied it. His stamp is all over the success, but Stewart credits the team he's assembled for the fast start.

"The great thing is that everybody does their job," he said. "I don't feel like I have to watch the guy that's paying the bills, and I don't have to watch the bills coming in and out because we've got good people who to take care of that area.

"Hiring those right people in those right spots, it's taken a lot of pressure off of me having to oversee everybody. I feel like I could literally not go to the shop for the whole year almost, and other than signing paperwork, it would run just fine with or without me in the shop."

That could mean trouble for the competition. Few expected Stewart to lock down a spot in the Chase this season driving for what essentially became a startup team after he dismantled Haas CNC Racing. But if they're still in good shape after the first half of the season, Stewart and Newman could be legitimate contenders by late summer.

"It's like we say every Monday in our competition meeting: We've just got to build a database first," Stewart said. "Once we get that established, then I think the second time we come around we're going to be a little better yet."

Harvick's pass gets him trucks win at Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- After staring at Kyle Busch's rear bumper for 67 laps, Kevin Harvick knew it was time to make a move.

Harvick dropped to the inside of Busch, passed him with just over nine laps to go and held on through an abbreviated final restart to win the rain-delayed and caution-filled trucks race Monday before a very sparse crowd at Martinsville Speedway.

"Every lap the pressure just needed to go up a little bit more and a little bit more," Harvick said of Busch, who had led for 139 laps. "I was able to get to his bumper there and get him up about a half a groove, and I got up under him. ... I didn't want to wreck him, but I knew it was time to start applying the pressure pretty heavily."

Harvick's pass came after one failed attempt to take the lead and several laps running his Chevrolet right on the bumper of Busch's Toyota at the Kroger 250 in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Once he got to the inside, the two dueled side-by-side to the flag stand.

After a crash brought out the 13th of 14 cautions, Harvick outran Ron Hornaday Jr. on the restart on lap 249 until another crash allowed him to coast to the victory under a caution.

In all, 14 yellow flags slowed the pace for 80 laps.

Even before the last caution, Harvick said, he felt comfortable as Hornaday's boss that the driver with a reputation for being aggressive when fighting for a lead would behave.

"I knew in that situation he knew he wasn't losing anything," Harvick said of the truck series regular. "Obviously, he wants to win, but he wasn't losing anything by having me in front of him. He had all the competitors points-wise that he needed behind him."

The victory was the fourth for Harvick in 97 truck series starts, and Hornaday joked that Harvick is wrong to think the employer-employee relationship carries onto the track.

"I didn't care who it was" up front, Hornaday said. "I was too busy watching (Mike) Skinner lay back on me so I looked in the mirror to see how far back he was and Kevin took off."

Skinner finished third, followed by Johnny Benson and Rick Crawford.

"I was waiting for (Harvick and Busch) to wreck each other, and then you and I were going to have some old times," Skinner told Hornaday after the race. "We were going to have some fun."

Busch, the series points leader entering the race, was forced to pit after losing the lead when he drove over the line that obligates a driver to visit pit road. He finished 17th.

Clearly unhappy with NASCAR's ruling, made after Busch crossed the line while trying to use the inside wall to stop a fender from rubbing his left front tire, Busch climbed from his truck, ran down pit road and climbed over the outside wall and out of the track.

Busch, who won two of the first three races, remained the points leader by 38 over Todd Bodine, who ran in the top 10 for most of the day but crashed twice late and finished 18th.

The event, rained out Saturday, attracted only a few thousand fans.

"The biggest fun was when you walk down the hill from the motor home and see all the big haulers leave with all the souvenirs and still see these fans sitting in the stands to watch us race," Hornaday said. "If it wasn't for the fans, we wouldn't be able to do this."

Jimmie Johnson testifies in Castroneves tax trial

usas/jjordan usas/ngillespie usas/jnkay

MIAMI (AP) -- NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson was the leadoff defense witness Monday in the Helio Castroneves tax evasion trial, testifying that a lawyer who is also charged in the case has a sterling reputation in the motorsports world.

Johnson, a three-time Sprint Cup winner, said Michigan lawyer Alan Miller has many clients in NASCAR and the Indy Racing League, a circuit where the Brazilian-born Castroneves is a top driver. Both Castroneves and Johnson have received financial guidance from Miller.

"Alan's reputation is about honesty. His character is second to none," Johnson testified in a 10-minute appearance. "He's given me great advice."

Miller, 71, is charged with conspiracy and tax evasion for allegedly helping Castroneves, 33, and the driver's business manager-sister, 35-year-old Katiucia, avoid U.S. taxes on some $5.5 million from 1999 to 2004. All three face more than six years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors rested their case Monday after four weeks of testimony, much of it focused on Miller's role in handling financial arrangements when Castroneves was hired by Penske Racing in late 1999. Prosecutors say the deal illegally avoided U.S. taxes on $5 million of the Penske money, which first was earmarked for a Panamanian shell corporation and then wound up in a Dutch deferred compensation account.

Johnson, 33, said Miller -- a former professional football player and former NFL Players Association lawyer -- has represented him for about 12 years and came widely recommended by racing industry leaders.

"I needed help to grow in my career. Alan was that guy for me," said Johnson, who won his 41st career NASCAR race Sunday at Martinsville, Va.

The defense case for Castroneves, a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, and his co-defendants is expected to take about a week. Howard Srebnick, attorney for Katiucia Castroneves, told jurors that evidence will show what the Internal Revenue Service claims were improper tax deductions were actually payments to their father for his years in Brazil working to promote Helio Castroneves.

"There was an understanding, and a moral obligation on the part of Helio, to pay his father," Srebnick said.

Castroneves also does not owe U.S. taxes on the $5 million sitting in the Dutch account because he has not yet received it, Srebnick said. Prosecutors claim the taxes were owed because Penske was ready and able to pay Castroneves, who cannot avoid tax just because he didn't accept the money.

Either way, Srebnick said Castroneves relied on advice from experts like Miller and others for his financial dealings.

"If the best-known lawyer in the racing community gives you that advice, you follow that advice. That's what Helio did," Srebnick said.

Aside from his racing career, Castroneves is perhaps best known for his 2007 victory on TV's "Dancing With The Stars" competition. The tax case does not involve his appearance on that show.

Mr. Martinsville: Johnson wins again at paper clip

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Jimmie Johnson didn't have the car to beat until late in the Goody's 500 on Sunday, but that he emerged at the right time should have been no surprise.

After all, he is Mr. Martinsville.

Johnson nudged Denny Hamlin aside in the third and fourth turns with 15 laps to go at Martinsville Speedway, and gave team owner Rick Hendrick a perfect place to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his first victory in NASCAR's premier series: Victory Lane.

Johnson and Hamlin had differing views of the pass that gave Johnson his fifth victory in the last six races on NASCAR's smallest, trickiest track. Hamlin said it was a bump and standard short-track fare, while Johnson thought the video would change Hamlin's opinion.

On the pass, Johnson caught Hamlin and got inside him on the backstretch on the 485th lap. From the outside, Hamlin tried to cut down in front of Johnson, bringing the contact.

Johnson gathered control and grabbed the lead, while Hamlin kept his car from hitting the wall and tried to give chase, but Johnson pulled away easily and coasted to the victory.

"If he wants to think that I tried moving him out of the way, he can believe that, but he should watch the video and see that I was inside of him," Johnson said. "I did everything I could to miss him -- climbed up on the curb -- and he was still coming down.

"The only reason we touched and the only reason he ended up in the rubber where he couldn't come back and get me was the fact that he chopped me," he added. "I patiently worked to get that spot, to get the position inside of him, and he crowded me on the bottom."

Hamlin said he bore no ill will, but will look forward to a chance to reciprocate.

"I would have done the same to him and if it comes back around, I will do the same thing." he said. "It's just the way it is. At Martinsville, you've got to battle for every inch."

No one, clearly, does that better than Johnson.

Dubbed "Mr. Martinsville" by Jeff Gordon, Johnson won for the fifth time in the last six races here and for the sixth time overall, second among active drivers to Gordon's seven.

And he did it by biding his time, falling back in the pack early in the race to get his car right, and then using the improved car and some slick work in the pits to make it pay.

The victory was the 18th for Hendrick Motorsports at Martinsville, where a victory by Geoff Bodine 25 years ago gave the fledgling company a needed boost, and the 10th in the last 13 races. Johnson has won six of those, and Gordon has won the other four.

Hendrick, who missed that first win, gave Johnson a bear hug in Victory Lane.

Johnson's 41st career victory came after Gordon, who led 147 laps, and then Hamlin, who led 296, dominated for most of the race, and after it looked like Hamlin had outfoxed him.

After Johnson took the lead coming out of the pits with 72 laps to go, Hamlin ducked inside him on a restart with 45 laps to go. The move gave the Virginia native the position he needed to take the lead, and he held onto it through three restarts until 15 laps remained.

Hamlin, the defending race champion, never challenged Johnson after he slid high into the banking after the winning pass, and his winless streak extended to 32 races.

Hamlin recovered to finish second in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, followed by Tony Stewart, Gordon and Clint Bowyer. Ryan Newman was sixth with Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. next, giving Hendrick four of the top eight spots and Stewart-Haas Racing two.

Stewart, who had the best view of the duel for the lead, was disappointed the leaders' battle and contact didn't give him a chance to take advantage, but thrilled nonetheless.

"We're inching up closer," said Stewart, a first-year owner who also owns Newman's car.

Gordon, who started on the pole for the eighth time at the track when qualifying was rained out and the starting lineup was set by the point standings, ran in the top five for most of the day, but still saw his winless streak extend to a career-high 47 races.

Gordon remained the points leader by 89 over Bowyer.

"I'm not really concerned with this streak of how many wins we haven't had in a row," Gordon said. "I am more concerned with what we have to do this year to win races and win this championship. You certainly don't want to give that No. 48 (Johnson) momentum."

Rain pushes truck race at Martinsville to Monday

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- The truck race scheduled for Saturday at Martinsville Speedway was postponed because of steady rain and has been rescheduled for noon Monday.

Rick Crawford won the pole during morning qualifying in a light drizzle, but the rain increased in intensity as the 2 p.m. starting time approached. It was called an hour later.

Crawford won the pole with a lap at 94.737 mph in his Ford. He'll start on the inside of the front row with Shane Sieg to his outside. Sieg's lap was at 94.326 mph in his Toyota.

The top five also includes Johnny Benson, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Colin Braun.

The pole is the sixth for Crawford in 301 career truck series starts, and he was not concerned with the prospect of seeing it postponed as the rain fell throughout the day.

"I don't mind not racing if nobody else gets to," he said.

The 0.526-mile oval does not have lights and can't support night racing. The Goody's 500 Sprint Cup race is scheduled for Sunday at the track.

Kenseth's decline continues at tricky Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Matt Kenseth won the first two races of the season, but it's been downhill ever since for the former champion, and Sunday's race only added to his decline.

Kenseth started 10th but dropped to 21st before the Goody's 500 was 10 laps old.

During pit stops after 42 laps, Kenseth's team was cited by NASCAR officials on pit road for losing control of one of the tires that had just been removed from his Ford.

NASCAR said it informed Kenseth's team that it was being penalized and sent to the tail end of the longest line on the restart, but Kenseth's team said it never got the message.

The miscommunication proved costly.

When Kenseth got back on the track and failed to heed the call to drop to the back, NASCAR black flagged him, forcing him to drive down pit road at the pit road speed of 30 miles per hour while the field zoomed by under a green flag, putting him a lap down when he returned.

He never recovered, finishing 23rd.

"The unfortunate thing is I wasn't clear the head official said we had to come in," Kenseth's crew chief, Drew Blickensderfer said. "I thought he was telling us, 'It was close. Make sure it doesn't happen again.' That type of thing, and it wasn't. It was, 'You messed up the rule,' so we've got to make sure we get our tires back. We can't have mistakes like that."

Kenseth has finished 43rd, 12th, 33rd and 23rd in the past four races, and he's fallen from leading the points to 12th, just seven ahead of No. 13 Jeff Burton.

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SPEED DEMON: Scott Speed thinks Kyle Busch owes him. Speed started 36th and led 12 laps early after the leaders pitted under caution, but was spun out by Busch and sustained damage.

He headed for the garage, crashed again later and finished 39th, 76 laps down.

"I'm sure Kyle is going to offer to buy me dinner since that's the second time this year that he's wrecked me," Speed said, laughing. "So, I'm looking forward to that."

The rookie hasn't finished better than 21st in six races and fell to 38th in points, but said he's encouraged by what his team has given him to drive, and less so by his bad luck.

"We had a great car before we got wrecked and we even had a great car after we got wrecked," he said. "We had a great car but were in the wrong place at the wrong time."

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LEADING THE CHARGE: Jeff Gordon led 147 laps at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday and moved into some rarified air in the process. He passed Fred Lorenzen for fifth on the list of laps led during his career on the 0.526-mile oval, now having paced 2,800.

The four guys ahead of him are Cale Yarborough with 3,851; Rusty Wallace with 3,632; Darrell Waltrip with 3,615; and Richard Petty with 2,964.

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EDWARDS' CHALLENGE: Despite a third-place finish here last fall, Martinsville has always been one of Carl Edwards' most challenging tracks, and he said this weekend that winning on the paper clip-shaped oval is one of his major goals for the 2009 season.

He'll have to try again in the fall.

Edwards was running third at the midpoint of the race, but when all the leaders headed to pit road under caution on lap 254, he lost eight spots, emerging in 11th. About 25 laps later, he blew a left rear tire, went two laps down and struggled the rest of the day.

He finished 26th, two laps down.

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LUG NUTS: Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth had rough starts. Kahne was sixth on the starting grid, but had faded to 19th after just 10 laps, while Kenseth dropped from 10th to 21st in the same period. ... Michael Waltrip hit the wall on lap 21, bringing out the first caution. ... Todd Bodine, Joe Nemechek and Dave Blaney started 39th or lower, and all three were in the garage before 100 laps had been run. ... Aric Almirola blew four tires during the race and then spun out on lap 446. He finished 37th.

Stewart earns parking spot with the stars

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- NASCAR is no different than the corporate world. Prime parking is a sure sign of success.

Tony Stewart has won two races on NASCAR's shortest, trickiest oval, but when the first-year team owner pulled into Martinsville Speedway on Friday, the place where he saw his team's hauler parked meant more to him than it probably ever had.

It was, he said, "a proud moment," and one earned on the track by his seventh-place position in the points standings with a new team that needed to start with some success.

"We haven't got that first win and we haven't got that first top-five, but we've had consistent runs and we're in the top-10 in points, so I think that in itself is an accomplishment," the two-time series champion said Friday at the rainy, 0.526-mile oval.

And the infield parking grid, in a way, herald's that success.

In the Sprint Cup Series, team haulers serve as rolling billboards for teams while in transit, and as the inner sanctum at the racetrack. They hold spare parts and important electronic and analytical systems, and a plush meeting room for strategy sessions.

In stock car racing's premier series, haulers are positioned inside the track according to the point standings, and Stewart's was parked near the front in the Martinsville infield.

For many fledgling teams, getting into that top 35 is a season-long struggle, but Stewart got a great start with eighth-place runs in the season-opening Daytona 500 and the second race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., and it's been smooth sailing ever since.

"I'm not sure I've had a big sense of anxiety yet," he said after practice at the track, where a steady drizzle washed out qualifying for Sunday's race. He'll start seventh.

"We've always had the attitude that we were going to take it a week at a time and we knew that there were going to be good weeks and we knew there were going to be bad weeks, but so far during the weekends, it has been really smooth where we haven't had that anxiety.

"It's just run the way it's supposed to run. That makes it a lot more calming."

Stewart went into his new dual role adamant that he would focus solely on his duties as a driver on weekends, but unsure how he would be able to manage sticking to that approach.

"If anything, it's played the opposite of what I thought it was going to be," he said. "I thought I'd be a lot more nervous as a car owner and I've been really relaxed instead."

The 10 years he spent working for Joe Gibbs have helped, Stewart said, because he learned from the Hall of Fame coach to surround himself with good people and let them do their jobs.

"I feel like I could literally not go to the shop for the whole year almost, and other than signing paperwork, it would run just fine with or without me in the shop," he said.

One of Stewart-Haas Racing's aces has been Darian Grubb, the crew chief for Stewart's Chevrolet. Luck has largely been on the team's side, Grubb said, except for at Las Vegas.

There, he said, a loose wheel relegated a potential winning car to 26th place.

"That was pretty disappointing," Grubb said. "But all of the small problems we've had, we were expecting. We're not putting ourselves out of races, we're not crashing, we're not having major issues in the pits or anything like that, so that's definitely helped."

The anticipation within the team, which also includes driver Ryan Newman, is growing.

"The most rewarding part is just seeing it develop and watching everybody's smiles turn into grins and their grins turn into laughter and laughter turning into victory lane," he said of the two-car effort. "We're not there yet, but that's the ultimate goal."

Newman is 27th in the points race, also comfortably inside the top 35.