Carfax 250 - Tony Stewart Notes

TONY STEWART
OLD SPICE CHEVROLET
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY PREVIEW

STEWART TO MAKE SECOND MICHIGAN BUSCH START: Tony Stewart will make his second Busch Series start at Michigan International Speedway (MIS) on Saturday. Stewart’s previous Busch Series start at Michigan was in 2003 when he led 86 of the scheduled 110 laps. Saturday’s start will be his eighth Busch race of the 2006 season. In seven Busch Series seasons, Stewart has never raced in more than 22 races in one season, which happened in 1998. His 2005 total of 12 races was his second highest in the seven year span. Stewart plans to compete in 10 Busch Series events for KHI in 2006.

KHI AT MICHIGAN: One year ago Tony Raines drove the No. 33 at Michigan International Speedway (MIS). Raines started eighth and finished 11th. KHI will be busy this time around at MIS. On Friday night Burney Lamar will drive the No. 31 Chevrolet in the ARCA/REMAX event. Then on Saturday Tony Stewart will drive the No. 33 Old Spice Chevrolet and Burney Lamar will drive the No. 77 Dollar General stores Chevrolet. Team owner, Kevin Harvick, has one Busch Series win at MIS, in 2003.

STEWART’S PREVIOUS BUSCH START WITH KHI: Tony Stewart’s last race in the No. 33 Old Spice Chevrolet was nearly six weeks ago at Chicagoland (Ill.) Speedway. Stewart started 17th and finished ninth. Since that start Aaron Fike, Ron Hornaday and Ron Fellows have shared the driving duties in the No. 33. Stewart will drive the No. 33 Old Spice Chevrolet at California Speedway and Kansas Speedway.

MANUFACTURERS HOME TOWN: Michigan International Speedway (MIS) is considered a “home” track for Chevrolet. Located one hour west of Detroit, MI., MIS is always an important race for teams and drivers to try and get to victory lane in front of their manufacturer and all of its employees.

LOOKING AHEAD: NASCAR Busch Series teams are in the midst of a 16 consecutive week stretch of races in the 35 race 2006 season. Michigan International Speedway (MIS) marks week 13 of 16 in that span. Ron Hornaday and Tony Stewart will have carried the bulk of the grueling schedule, and Hornaday will continue on with the majority of the schedule for the rest of the season. Following the September 8 race at Richmond Va., Busch Series teams will get a well deserved week off.

KHI QUOTEBOOK
Crew Chief: Wally Rogers
MICHIGAN IS THE FIRST INTERMEDIATE TRACK YOU’VE VISITED SINCE CHICAGO Ill., WILL THOSE NOTES BE OF USE THIS WEEKEND? “We’re taking the same car to Michigan that we had in Chicago. We were real happy with the car since it was its first time out on the race track. We also learned several things that should translate over to Michigan. We had a good package with Kevin (Harvick) at California which is similar to Michigan, so we’ll just build on all of that this weekend.”

WHAT’S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE GOING FROM A ROAD COURSE LAST WEEK TO A TWO-MILE OVAL THIS WEEK? “The challenge is more on the guys at the shop, than the driver since Ron Fellows drove last week and Tony Stewart will be behind the wheel this week. We know that twice a year we’re going to run road course races, so we have two cars that we prepare for that with. Now we move on to Michigan, and we’ve been working hard on our mile and half, two mile program. The guys have worked hard on the car for this weekend, and hopefully we can bring home a good finish.”

TECHNICAL INFORMATION