TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT IMPALA SS EARNS WIN

Tony Stewart Captures Centurion Boats at The Glen; Third Win in Four Races for Home Depot Chevrolet Team and Fourth Cup Career win at Watkins Glen International

Chevrolet Impala SS Drivers Score Seven of Top-10 Finishing Positions at Watkins Glen International

Eighth win of season for new generation Impala SS race car

WATKINS GLEN, NY: Tony Stewart continued his traditional late-summer surge by capturing the win in today's running of the Centurion Boats at The Glen, Round 22 on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series (NNCS) tour of 36 races. It was the third victory of the season for Stewart and the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet team, having scored back-to-back wins at Rounds 19 and 20 in Chicago and Indianapolis. This is Stewart's fourth career win at Watkins Glen International and the 32nd of his NNCS career.

With just two laps remaining, the two-time NNCS champion was in second place behind leader Jeff Gordon,No. 24 DuPont Impala SS, when Gordon spun out in the first turn. Stewart took advantage of Gordon's uncharacteristic mistake and held off the competition for his third win in four races. "Trust me, I was the most shocked person," said the two-time NASCAR Nextel Cup Series (NNCS) champion. "Our only shot of getting by him was to keep the pressure on him and hope he'd make a mistake."

Stewart's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Fed Ex Impala SS finished second and defending NASCAR Nextel Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Impala SS finished third. Ace road racer, Ron Fellows, crossed the finish line in fourth place behind the wheel of the No. 96 DLP HDTV Impala SS.

Martin Truex, Jr., No. 1 Bass Pro Shops Impala SS, finished sixth followed by Kyle Busch, No. 5 Kellogg's/CARQUEST Impala SS, in seventh. Gordon righted himself and brought home the eighth-place finishing position.

Chevrolet also extended its lead in the Manufacturers' Cup title run, scoring its 17th win in the 22 NNCS events thus far in 2007.

A total of nine Bowtie drivers continue to hold spots in the top-12 in the standings with four races remaining until the Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship begins September 16 at New Hampshire International Speedway.

The next event for Team Chevy will be at Michigan International Speedway on August 19, 2007.

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER IMPALA SS - sidelined with motor failure:

ON WHAT HAPPENED: "We ended up having an issue with the motor. I think it was due to some of the downshifts I was doing during practice. We didn't turn anything over 10,000 (RPM) during the race, but during practice all weekend, I was having trouble with the car and struggling, I was using the downshift to slow the car down and get some speed out of the thing. We might have beat on the motor too hard this weekend, but they (engines) have been really good this year. We have had a lot of gremlins, but as far as failure in parts, rods and things like that, we haven't had them.

"I am real proud of my team. We were terrible all weekend but that car was good during the race. It was fun to drive. I thought we were putting on a show, we were working really hard and had something to be proud of and now all kind of disappointed but we will come back next week.

"We just beat on the motor too hard. I think we was just too rough on it. The motor was good. The car was really, really good. We were terrible all weekend and they just threw something underneath it this morning and look where we were running. We were jut as good as some of the cars out there. We were equal to the No. 24 if I wanted to really push the issue. I don't think I could catch him, but he could have made a mistake or something and I might have been able to get a win. But I think we had everybody else beat. So I'm pretty proud of that."

ON MAKING THE TOP 12: "It won't be easy, but we've done a whole lot harder stuff than that. I can handle it. We'll jut come back and try again. I'm going to make sure that I show my confidence in my team and make sure that I show them that I'm not giving up and they'll follow suit. And they'll show me a thing or two. We'll get something out of this.

ON BEING ABLE TO OVERCOME THIS IN POINTS: "I am sure we can. We have overcome a whole not worse than this, that is saying a lot, but I think we will be able to overcome it quite a bit.

"I think we have a couple races left and there is no telling what is going to happen in those races. I'm ready for Michigan to start right now.

"We're going to have our work cut out for us. This engine trouble here is going to make it much more difficult than what we were looking at last week. But we're going to keep trying. We've got to keep trying. If we don't try, we'll be pretty damned ashamed of ourselves. So we've got to keep working."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL-PENNZOIL IMPALA SS:

ON WHAT HAPPENED WITH JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: "You just got run over. I guess the No. 1 ran over the No. 42. It's one of those things where our Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet was really good there at the end and it just felt like we'd saved our car enough to have a chance to win there and it all just goes up in smoke because some people get impatient. But I just hate it. I'm frustrated with the No. 42 (Montoya). It just seems like he runs over somebody every week."

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 AT&T IMPALA SS:

ON THE CRASH: ""The No. 42 was trying to block the No. 1 and the No. 1 got in the back of the No. 42 and it all went downhill from there. I thought we were clear, but the No. 42 didn't hold the brake. He let his foot off the brake and let it roll back across the track and I had nowhere to go. Pretty disappointed. We didn't run very good today but we were going to salvage a top-10 out of it, instead, we will get 40th-whatever."

ON AFFECT ON POINTS: "We go to the race track every week trying to do the best we can do. That is all we can do. I am not going to get caught up in the points. I didn't get caught up in them last year when we were leading with four or five to go, I didn't get caught up in it then and I am not going to get caught up in it now. We will just keep going to the race track taking car of business, keeping our nose to the grindstone so to speak. Keep building better cars and me do a better job of driving it. This situation doesn't change the way we are going to try and prepare ourselves for a race weekend."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT IMPALA SS - Winner

ON WHAT HAPPENED TO JEFF GORDON WITH TWO LAPS TO GO: "Basically it was the same thing that I lost it in turn one. It was both of ours (Gordon) to lose today. Jeff and I by far had the best two cars. I just made a mistake and wheel-hopped it, was the biggest thing. We just had to keep fighting back; it was a hard job fightin' back through there.

"We just had to keep the pressure on Jeff and hope he made a mistake and that is what happened."

ON HOW DIFFICULT TO GET BACK THROUGH THE FIELD AFTER SPIN AND GETTING BACK ON TRACK IN 19TH "This thing was terrible 10-deep in traffic. The further forward we got, the better it was. The Good Lord was with us today. I gave it away and I got it back the same way I lost it.

"The further forward we got, the better off we were. I didn't want those cautions late, I wanted to run a long green flag run. I felt we had a shot at it if we could run them down. But Jeff, was tough, he was very strong. Carl (Edwards) caught me off guard even at the end there. I had my spotter tell me about Blaney going up the hill there and lost a little momentum, gave Carl a run there.

"But this thing was awesome the last lap."

ON WHAT HAPPENED WHEN HE SPUN IN TURN ONE: "The driver just screwed up. I wheel-hopped it going down in to turn one. Should have just used up more race track than I did, but I just made a mistake. It was pretty bad knowing you had the best car out there and give it away like that. Zippy (Greg Zipadelli, crew chief) and Mark Robertson (spotter) kept me calm. We just took them one at a time from there.

"When I went through the inner-loop there later in the race, it was just hard to turn when you can't see the race track. I had Carl (Edwards) right along side of me and Denny in front of me and I just never saw the corner. I knew where I thought it should be, but never did see it. That is the cool thing about running with Denny and Carl, all three of us were hanging on there for dear life and never touched each other. That was pretty fun.

"I didn't want that caution to come out there because we had got to second, the caution put us back to third, but we made it back around all right."

ON PASSING DENNY (HAMLIN): "I just got a good run on him there. Track position is so important with these cars and it was hard to pass so if you got a run, you had to do everything you could to take it. But I made sure I gave him room off of one there. I tried to give him enough room to not get him in a bad spot. He was racing Carl too. Just trying to keep him from getting passed by Carl."

ON END OF THE RACE: "We couldn't do anything with Jeff there near the end. All we could do is what we did there which was keep the pressure on. There were parts of the track that I was faster, and there were spots of the track where he was faster. We definitely had the best two cars all day. The bad thing for Jeff is he didn't have the number of laps I had to recover from it. That was our only shot to keep the pressure on him. These things are so aero dependent that you have to work really hard to get a run there."

ON RECORD ON ROAD COURSES NOW WITH RICKY RUDD, RUSTY WALLACE, RICHARD PETTY, BOBBY ALLISON: "That is awesome. That is a pretty impressive group of drivers to be included in. Those guys were all great champions and all great Nextel Cup racers. To be in that group is something we are pretty proud of. This whole team has always taken a lot of pride in our road course program. We always know what we need and how I need the car to feel on race day. Once we get it there we leave it. Like yesterday, we stopped like 20-25 minutes left in practice. I knew we were where we wanted to be. It was just adjusting to today's conditions. We just parked it and waited for today and if it weren't for the fact I screwed up and lost it for us early, we all wouldn't have had to work so hard today."

RON FELLOWS, NO. 96 DLP HDTV IMPALA SS - Finished 4th:

"This is awesome. We continue to step on, well whatever, I apparently sped down pit lane, so that cost us and we had to go to the back of the longest line. But Brandon Thomas and all of the guys here at Hall of Fame racing did such a good job.. I want to thank Bill Saunders for the opportunity.

"Man, I would have liked that race to go another five more laps. It just helps to have a really good piece. The Impala these guys provided for me is just terrific. Thanks to Texas Instruments for the opportunity. This isn't a win, but we have had a little bit of bad luck, so this is cool."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S IMPALA SS - Finished 3rd:

"Great day. The last two weeks we have been able to finish where we have been running. That is really all you can ask for. Just really proud of this whole Lowe's team and all the hard work they put in week in and week out. Next week we are excited, we will have Chad (Knaus) back and look forward to getting a win here real soon. "At times, it was pretty wild out there today. I was caught up in a few things. I think at times, some guys just take it for granted that they have bumpers. The No. 42 finally has a bumper and he is running people over, ran me over and spun me out which was unfortunate, but at least we recovered from it. But all in all a good day for us. It is just short tracks and road course, everybody gets hot and heavy and you have this kind of stuff and it puts on a good show for the fans."

DENNY HAMLIN, NO. 11 FEDEX IMPALA SS - Finished 2nd:

"I was just too busy trying to fend off the No. 99 and couldn't concentrate on my own marks to try and get around the No. 24. I felt like I should have probably just nudged him a little bit there at that one point, that let Tony get by me. If I had nudged him (Jeff Gordon) and got out in clean air, wow, this race could have been ours. It was still a great one-two finish for Joe Gibbs racing.

"I couldn't believe it when I saw Carl (Edwards) go straight there on the last lap. I knew there was dust out there in turn six, my spotter told me so, so I took it a little easier, but it looked like he hit it."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS - Finished 9th:

ON WHAT HAPPENED: "Pretty much the same thing that happened to Tony (Stewart) earlier in the race in the braking zone getting in to turn one. Just stupid. I knew I had to push, Tony was really good. I wanted that win really bad. Points don't mean anything. I pushed and I pushed too far. What happened is the team deserved to win and the driver didn't get it done.

"I'm just disappointed because we were terrible yesterday in practice and this team worked so hard to get us a good race car today. I was driving the wheels off of it and they were doing an awesome job in the pits and making good calls and put us in position to win that race and I don't like giving up wins. I don't like making mistakes. That mistake is not a difficult one to make. That corner is ridiculously difficult and we were having brake issues all weekend. I saw Tony do it and I knew I needed to make sure I didn't do it and I didn't do it all day until it came down to when it counted. I'm just disappointed."

DOES THIS HURT WORSE THAN ANYTHING YOU'VE DONE LIKE THAT IN A LONG TIME? "Hey, anytime you do something like this; it's not the first time I've done it. It's always something different. Anytime you've got a shot at winning a race; it was just like at Texas earlier this year when I brushed the wall. I was extremely disappointed in myself then and I'm disappointed now. I'll get over it and actually I'm so angry right now. I told the guys last time I'd make it up to them and I plan on doing that again."

EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE CAR GETS AWAY LIKE THAT: "The track ripples down into (Turn) 1 and it's downhill so you're hard on the brakes. You really can't even get close to maximum brake pressure on the pedal going into Turn 1 because it's a little bit rough and the rear tires just start bouncing. You have to be very careful with how much speed you carry in there. Late in the race when Tony was pushing me, I pulled away from him a little bit and I felt pretty comfortable that I wasn't having to push that hard into (Turn) 1. But he started gaining back on me a little bit and I didn't feel like I could give up at any spot, so I was just trying to take advantage of every area I thought that we could make up time."

DID YOU HAVE A GOOD BRAKE PEDAL AT THAT POINT? "Oh, yeah. My brake pedal was awesome all day. Stock cars in general, the type of driveline and weight and that it's just a big car and a little tire, it's always been an issue. You talk about wheel-hop; nobody knows exactly what causes it. Is it just the brakes? Is it driveline and brakes? But it's probably one of the biggest challenges that we have in road racing. It's not difficult to do. We saw Tony Stewart do it earlier in the race and I did it too. I hate to give that win to Tony. He was strong. He was probably the car to beat. We were probably a second-place car. But I saw an opportunity to try to take advantage of it and it didn't work out."

WHAT WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE, THE BONUS POINTS OR THE TROPHY? "The bonus points."

ON THE IMPACT ON THE CHASE: "We gave up 20 (points) because I didn't get the 10 that would have kept him from getting the 10 (laughs). Had I won, I would have gained 10 points so I would have been 20 points more ahead of him than I am now. So, I'd probably take that back. I'd probably rather have had the trophy than the bonus points. I think we can beat him in the final 10 races so, whether we're ahead or behind in the bonus points. The whole thing is, I was shocked that we ran as good as we did today. We were terrible yesterday. I didn't think we were going to have a car anywhere close to those guys when I looked at the timesheets in practice. So I'm extremely proud of this team. I think that's what makes it more difficult is how good of a job that Jeff Meeandering and this team did while Steve (Letarte) wasn't here and I just feel like we gave up a win. That's the disappointing part."

WITH YOUR 9TH PLACE FINISH, YOU CLINCHED A SPOT IN THE CHASE: "I hate to act coy like that but we're in a different position than other guys are. For us, we're just looking at things differently. That's not even an issue for us right now, it's about trying to win races and get bonus points and get ourselves ready for that Chase. It's an interesting battle back there for 10th, 11th, and 12th; and I know that's a story, but it's not our story."

ON TONY STEWART "He's been strong here for a long time and he's going to be tough in the Chase. It's going to be interesting. The thing is you definitely can't make those kinds of mistakes in the Chase. Right now, I'm not points racing so I probably mentally push myself harder than physically because I know the points aren't on the line. It's more about the win. In the Chase, I'll make sure we don't make those kinds of mistakes."

BUT HAD YOU WON, YOU SAID YOU WOULD HAVE HAD 20 MORE POINTS THAN TONY: "That's true. No, you're right. In a way, I guess we are (points racing), but the Chase hasn't started yet. It's just going to be a different mentality. Like you say, it's a bonus. You're not actually focused on it. Right now, it's hard to think of it as the difference between the championship, but it could be I guess."

ON HOW WILD THE RACE WAS BEHIND HIM AT THE END: "I know; I didn't really see a whole lot of that. I didn't know what was going on. I saw a replay of it on TV and it was kind of nuts back there."

DOES IT SEEM LIKE IT WAS YOUR TURN TO HAVE BAD LUCK? "That wasn't bad luck. Trust me. When you drive in the corner too deep and you step on the brake pedal too hard and you wheel-hop, it's not bad luck. That was all my foot."

DENNY HAMLIN, NO 11 FEDEX IMPALA SS AND JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S IMPALA SS TAKE 2ND AND 3RD

POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

Q. Jimmie, take us through that race. A lot of twists and turns, a lot of drama, your thoughts.
JIMMIE JOHNSON: It's certainly a solid day for the Lowe's team. We were pretty nervous a couple of times with the fuel strategy. I don't think we got the best mileage, but we still needed a lot of those cautions and fortunately we got them because we couldn't afford to not be on the same strategy as everybody we were racing with for the lead. So to get through that and have the strategy kind of work out for us and not have it be a fuel mileage race on top of that, it had a competitive car and tried to stay smart throughout the day and at the end had something to race with and got in some positions on my own and guys made some mistakes late to help get us into the Top 3.

Q. You had the incident with Juan Pablo Montoya, how much does it mean to come back from that and get a Top 3 after the some of the bad luck you had in July and August so far?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, it is nice to come back. I have to admit, when he dumped me, I was furious. Here we are minding our business, running along out there, and the guy never gets inside of me and just runs me over to get position. And it's unfortunate they get his chance to run well on these road courses and takes advantage of it and starts laying the bumper to everybody. We've got a long season left and next week we probably won't see him on the track but it's just frustrating to be smart all day long, have somebody run you over from behind, and luckily we recovered from that.

Q. Just your take on so many guys, unforced errors, is that a product of the new cars and the level of difficulty of driving them?
JIMMIE JOHNSON: I think it's a couple of things. That might be part of it. And it probably does put more cars up front and capable of running for the win, so I do agree with that. But I think a lot of drivers and a lot of teams have been working hard on the road course races, racing, in general, I should say, and you've got a lot of good drivers and a lot of good teams. We're all running the same speed so when you see a small bobble from someone, you've got to pounce on it. When you have fresh tires or cold brakes, you've got to make the bonsai move to get in position, and I think that's just because the level of competition is getting closer and closer between the Top 10.

Q. Denny, your thoughts about how things unfolded out there today.
DENNY HAMLIN: It was a good race for us. You know, you start thinking about ways you could have won the race, and, you know, I had Jeff at a pretty vulnerable situation there and on one restart, I felt like I had to be a little more aggressive, I could have got around them. And then, of course, I felt like after that, we could have checked out because we could reel those guys back in after a long run. It just took a little while to get going. So, you know, when I did that, I opened up the door for Tony and let him pass me and that was kind of the move that won him the race I think. I definitely think it's a strong run for our team. This definitely exceeds expectations we had going into this weekend so it's still a great run for both the No. 11 and No. 20.

Q. It seemed like a wild race out there for you, you had a couple of moments with your teammate, Tony, in the inner loop off of Turn 9 and you had a moment there with Carl Edwards in the inner loop. Can you run through those experiences and what those were like for you?
DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, I mean, it was an exciting race. It seems like when you try to charge the corner like I was trying to do, and some other guys trying to pass, guys were really, you know, blocking their position and trying to stay in the cleanest air possible. So you had to charge the corner harder than them and when you do you get behind on your shifting and behind on your breaking and kind of leaves you with a situation of you're going to take yourself out and the other guy or you're going to have to cut the inner loop a little short. So I had to do that twice to avoid controversy or incident, and so we did what we had to do. I felt like it was a real exciting race, or it should have been for the fans, anyway.

Q. Just wanted to get your reaction, when you saw the cars you were trying to chase back down, one by one, they were off the track, just your reaction when your driving past them and see them just stranded there.
DENNY HAMLIN: Well, I almost did the same thing Jeff (Gordon) did on the exact same lap. Luckily I had enough race track to catch up to it but it's so easy to do here, I kept cranking front brake in that car all day long because the rear wheels would just hop. I think it's just a product of this race car right now until we get everything ironed out that it's going to be tough to fix that. So, you know, it's just so easy too do and I know Jeff was pressing as hard as could he to try to keep the No. 20 behind him and just got himself in trouble there.

Q. This is one of your best finishes on the road course, talk to me about how your car drove and how you like driving on the road course today.
DENNY HAMLIN: Well, road courses are a lot of fun for me. I've had a lot of success in the Busch car, but you know, we run really well in the Cup series cars every single road course, we just seemed to get too far behind at the beginning, and it takes us the whole race to get back to the front. I just, this is one race where it was kind of incident-free for us. We didn't really are any problems, and pit strategy went our way. Road course racing is fun, it's just frustrating at times when guys get better fuel mileage than you and ended up cheating a win out of you. That didn't really happen today. You had the best three or four cars at the end were up front and that's what racing is all about.

Q. What was it like after the last restart with Tony, did you work together?
DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, we were trying to work together. I went over his radio a few times and asked him not to dive up by me on the very first corner because it was going to end up costing me a lot of positions. I had Jeff in my sights with that one restart and I was right there on him. All I needed to do was press that gas a little harder and I would have had him out of shape. All of that will repay. We are going to have to race each other for years and years to come. So hopefully he did the same thing for me at Louden when I got my win. So I figured bumping him out of the way could kind of be the unethical thing to do in my situation right now. It's unfortunate for him. He messed up anyway, so maybe we should have just cooled it.

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT IMPALA SS WINS CENTURION BOATS AT THE GLEN

WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL - PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

Q. Greg, congratulations, a great effort by the 20 team today. Take us through it.
GREG ZIPADELLI: Thank you. You know, we just for some reason were fortunate enough to love this place and run good here and we unloaded yesterday the same car we had at Sonoma, and it really was good on Friday. It was excellent yesterday. Keeping track position was obviously going to be the key, and obviously we gave that up when we spun. Everybody kept their heads up and stayed focused knowing there was enough time to put ourselves back in position to hopefully win this race and you know, good Lord willing, it worked out today.

For the first time in a long time, fuel mileage wasn't an issue for us but the guys in front of us at the time were really in trouble as far as if we don't get all of those cautions. For us we felt like we had a good opportunity to capitalize on the win here, whether it was racing it or you know, obviously fuel mileage. But it didn't come down to the fuel mileage with all of the cautions we had.

When Jeff spun it gave us the opportunity for the lead and that's how he got track position or how he got the lead when we spun, so we kind of got it back. Normally it doesn't go full circle that quick but fortunately today it did.

Q. You have the low of him spinning in turn one and then the high of Jeff spinning and Tony taking the lead. What did you say to Tony when he spun and what did you say when Jeff spun?
GREG ZIPADELLI: You know, we don't talk about those things a lot. This team has been together so long, we all know what we need to do and what's expected of us. You know, when Tony spun it was, don't worry about it. We have a long way to go, we'll do what we can do and salvage a good day if we can't get backup there, but we are going to do it and stick together to be proud of each other for whatever we do accomplish today. When the No. 24 spun, there's a little bit of excitement because we regained the lead but you don't want to see that happen to anyone.

You know, it happened to us earlier, it's kind of funny that's how he got the lead and we got it back. We tried to stay as emotional as we can throughout the day and we're here to do one thing, that's win and if we can't win, finish as good as we can and collect as many points that we need to for the end of the year.

Q. ON THE RACE CAR
GREG ZIPADELLI: We've had a good car since we've been here. Jeff obviously had a pretty good car this afternoon, and you know, getting into turn one when we spun it, it kind of put us behind a little bit. We were off a little bit for some reason all week and Tony just couldn't use the brake or drive in as deep. We're going to have to work on that for him next year but every other place on the racetrack we looked to be as good as anybody, you had to guard that I believe a little bit today.

Q. Congratulations, Tony, for winning today. This is your 32nd NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series win, that's tide for 19th all time by Dale Jarrett, congratulations on that. This is your third victory this year and, man, they have come big, congratulations on that. It's your fourth time you've won that, fourth time here at the Glen. A great race, with you guys were very dominate, had a lot of things happening give and take, etc. Your thoughts, take us through the race.
TONY STEWART: You know, we got to third right away. And you know, I told the guys, Jeff (Gordon) and Denny (Hamlin) kind of got away a little bit from us and I told him I was just taking care of my car and we were not in any big hurry and didn't really have to be in any big hurry at that point in the race so just was trying to take care of the brakes and fuel is always a big issue here so trying to save fuel from the start of the race on and not really being in fuel conversation mode but just not hammering down 100%.

We were running a comfortable pace and not running behind those two guys when we were getting the brakes hot for some reason early so just settled into third there and got comfortable and got into second and ended up getting the lead thereafter the first caution there and you know, still just kind of ran our pace and were able to open up a pretty good lead and just kind of maintain it.

So you know, everything was going according to plan there, and halfway through the race there, I get the lead back again from Jeff, and I think the No. 10 car was in front of us at the time, we were actually running second to them and they came in to pit and finish their cycle and we were kind of in the same situation again, and then I go down in Turn 1 and I do the big wheel-hop deal.

So you know, it took us from first to 19th, I think they said and took about two laps to get back in my rhythm. You know, you just had to kind of shake it off and know that we had half the race left to come back to the front and just had to try to be patient and not burn the brakes off and you know, not knock the fenders off. I got into Robby Gordon once and wheel?hopped it and didn't knock him out of the way or anything but I made sure that when we came off of 1, I let him have the spot back and I wasn't going to take it by running over him.

So we just tried to be patient and work our way through the crowd there and sure enough, with the 30 laps to go, we're back in the top-5 there and fighting the guys that we're going to be fighting for the win. You know, we just kept picking them off one at a time and that's the leadership of Greg and all of the guys on this Home Depot team. You make a mistake like that and I know it was disappointing for those guys but they are still behind us 100% and every time we passed a car coming back by, they are rooting me on. So that kind of supports what helps you get through disappointment like that.

You know all we can do at the end of the race there with Jeff leading was just try to keep as much pressure on him as we could there. By far, I think we had the two best cars all day between Jeff and I and you know, whichever one of us was in the lead, I think the other one wasn't going to get around unless they made a mistake and we were fortunate enough to get a break that cost us the lead to get us back in the lead. So I feel bad for Jeff because he didn't have the luxury of having all of those laps to get those positions back like we did. But, you know, I just, that's fate from upstairs that gives you a day like today when you make a mistake and you get it back the same way you lost it.

Q. Talk about all the success you've had at Watkins Glen?
TONY STEWART: We've been fortunate. This is a track I like obviously with four wins here. The day we got here, I remember the first time was still when NASCAR and Goodyear were till working with the rain tires, and Zippy wouldn't even trust me enough to let me go out and practice in the rain that year. I think we got about four laps before qualifying and we qualified fourth that year. It's a place that I've become comfortable with right off the bat and we've always, we always have been fast here and we haven't necessarily always won obviously, but we've always been fast here. We've always been a contender if we didn't have a problem. It's definitely one of the tracks on the circuit that we look forward to coming to four out of nine races we've run, we're almost batting .500 here.

Q. How do you explain all of the unforced errors, seemed like nobody was immune and so tough, is that a product of the cars?
TONY STEWART: I don't know. I mean, you know, obviously Jeff's situation, we were putting a lot of pressure on him. You know, we, that was our only shot at getting by him was to keep the pressure on him and hope that he made a mistake. Trust me, I was probably the most shocked person to see it happen. Jeff has won four championships and 70?some odd races now. He's the last guy you expect to have a problem like that.

But you know, I think it shows the strength of how good our car was that we were able to stay probably closer to him longer than anybody had been able to stay to him all day and kept him from getting in a spot where he could take it easy and be more comfortable. You know, I'm proud of our guys for giving me a car that was that good.

Talking to Kenny Wallace, nobody was immune to it today. Everybody at one time or another seemed to wheel?hop into Turn one. Turn one is tricky here. You go downhill into it, there's a couple of bumps that can make it real easy to wheel hop whether it's due to the brake balance or whether it's where you downshift from third to second, if you're not careful, it's real easy to wheel?hop, and I've wheel?hopped it twice in practice and that's why we were not able to get into Turn 1 as good. But I was not getting in quite as deep as everybody else but really getting on the gas a lot earlier than everybody else so really averaged out. So was not too concerned about it other than on the restarts when guys were right behind us. It just seemed like today was one of those days that, you know, the competition up front was so close, it wasn't unheard of to see somebody do that, racing for the lead.

Q. Can you talk about the battle with Denny there when you guys were behind Gordon and it seemed like both of you were running through the grass at any time; did you think you had damaged your car?
TONY STEWART: We picked up a lot of grass. Having your teammate up there, he'll run a constant speed where I can weave back and forth and it sucks the grass out of there. To be honest I never saw the corner, and I had Carl on the inside of me and Denny up in front of me, it's a flat corner so I never even saw the turn. When Denny turned, I was like, I still never saw pavement. I was like, well, this is going to be interesting. He went off, I went off and Carl back there kept from running over both of us somehow. That's kind of a neat trio, you trust the guys you're going to be around obviously. But it wasn't exactly what we had in mind. It got the water temperature up to 245 which is warmer than I wanted it, but luckily we had a teammate there that during the caution, we could get the grass out and the temperature came right back down.

Q. Winning is the ultimate, but when you have pressure on the four?time champion, how does that magnify the feeling?
TONY STEWART: You know, I think it shows the significance of how important those ten points are. It wasn't, you know, you want to win here anyway. This is a big race to win obviously with it being the own one of two road courses. But you know, running second here to myself or Carl didn't mean anything. It was all about winning today because we want those extra ten points, those ten bonus points right now. So if you're solidly in the Top-10 right now, I mean, second, you might as well kiss your aunt with hairy mustache; not something you really cared about. Don't act lie you guys don't have an aunt like that, either (laughs). Everybody does.

Q. Do you think you have the best car? If Gordon doesn't spin, do you still win the race?
TONY STEWART: I'll be honest, I think our car was just a tick better than Jeff's. But, you know, it was a situation that whoever was leading, it was going to be extremely hard for the other guy to get by. If we're leading, it's going to be hard for Jeff to get by, and if Jeff doesn't make that mistake, we run second to him. You know, I could run, there were parts of the track where I could gain time on him; there were parts of the practice where he would gain time on us.

We could gain a little ground, but you were going to have to be a bunch faster to get by him. He was really good in braking and I think eventually that's what got him was we just finally, you know, pressured him so much in the braking zones that hopefully, you know, we got his brake temps up to where either the fronts gave up a little bit to where it made the backs grab harder or whatever the case is, but whatever the case was, the end result worked out for us. Whenever was leading with ten to go was probably going to win the race most likely.

Q. This was the first Car of Tomorrow race here at Watkins Glen but you've had success here in the past. What do you think has allowed your team to be so consistent from the old car to the Car of Tomorrow to have that success continue?
TONY STEWART: I don't know. I'm just a driver to be honest. You missed the guy that you should have asked that question to. He just left a minute ago. I don't know. I really don't have a good answer for you on that. It's just a place that, you know, I think through the nine years that we've been here, I know what parts of the track are real important and know what portions of the circuit to place a lot of emphasis on.

So I think in itself has kind of helped us and Zippy works really hard to get the areas that I feel like we need to be good at and he figures a way to get the car driving real well. That combination has helped us be successful every time we've been here.

Q. You've won three of the last four, Jeff Gordon has had an ungodly point lead for I don't know how long, you're two are the favorites going into the Chase. Is today a preview of what we'll see the rest of the way?
TONY STEWART: I hope what we've seen in the last four races is what we're going to see in the Chase. I hope for every four races we run we win three of them and the other ones, I hope we run second. I hope so. It's hard to say.

Obviously there's a lot of racing to go on, and you know, you see how easy and how quick a string can end and go just the opposite for you. So you know, we hope that we're getting hot at the right time now, and that we take the next two or three weeks and lock ourselves into the Chase there to where we can, those last couple of races, just strictly go for the win and get those extra bonus points and hopefully once the Chase starts we can be on a run like we are right now. I feel like we're in the best position of anybody right now with what's happened three out of last four weeks. It's just a matter of keeping your fingers crossed and hoping that carries on the rest of the year.

Q. I have two questions.
TONY STEWART: You can only ask one, Ma'am, and then pass it to somebody else. We'll come back to you if we have time later on. (Laughter).

Q. You seem to have a knack and have mastered the ability to get way back in the pack and then finagle your way up in a hurry.
TONY STEWART: Finagle? (Laughter).

Q. Okay. It's a good verb. So?
TONY STEWART: Can you pick another verb maybe? Something that makes me feel like I accomplished something important today rather than just backed into it?

Q. Darted, how about that? Sped?
TONY STEWART: Why don't you just try the rest of your question and see if it works any better.

Q. And I just wanted you to react to the Harvick and Juan Pablo shoving match.
TONY STEWART: Oh, I didn't see it. I was kind of busy. (Laughter)

Q. So how are you? That's all my questions.
TONY STEWART: Maybe next week after I've seen it. Only thing I heard is they still had their HANS and their helmets on so it doesn't impress me. If they are going to do it, take their helmets off, and if not, don't waste everybody's time. I think we covered that years ago at Bristol.

Q. And your art form of battling towards the front?
TONY STEWART: You know, that was the great thing about Zippy today is, you know, it's as much of a hole as I dug for us by one mistake in one corner and taking us from first to 19th, the guys, every time I would pass a car, you would see guys cheering for us on the pit box and you know having that kind of support from the guys, that is what helps you rebound from something like that is knowing that your whole team is still behind you. They knew I was working hard and I just made a mistake.

You know, they knew I would give 100% at the end and they were giving me 100% of their support to help me get back to the front. This team has never quit on anything and just because we had one bad lap and went back to mid?pack didn't mean we were going to quit today either.

Q. Patrick Carpentier had his first start, trying to do like you did, going from IRL to NASCAR. He was in front of you, and you had time to watch him drive a little bit, what's your take on that?
TONY STEWART: I thought he adapted pretty quick in all reality. We were not really letting it ride there much. He was putting some good laps down, so I was pretty impressed, for the time he's had in a heavy car, I thought he did a good job today. I think the pit strategy killed his chances of being able to run in the top-10 or top-5. But I think the laps that he led up there, I think if it didn't impress a bunch of people, it should have. I think he put on a pretty good display there, the kind of talent he's got.

Q. Can you run through the emotions the last two laps, the last five laps, you challenged Jeff and he got away from you and then he spun and you grabbed the lead and Carl put a nice challenge on the inner loop. Can you run through those last couple of laps real quick?
TONY STEWART: Yeah, we just, the only thing we could do is just keep the pressure on, with less than ten laps to go, no point in saving anything. All we could do is keep going into every corner as hard as we could and not give up any time. Our brakes, I knew we were in good position on our brake wear; we had taken care of it all day. Even when we battled back I was real conscious not to burn the car and brakes up trying to get through there. That let me keep the pressure on him obviously and then he spins, breaks my momentum and let's Carl catch up. And I'm hearing on the radio from the spotter, that Dave Blaney's car is blowing up through the esses, and it's not exactly a perfect spot to have a car blowing up and running a third of the speed that it needs to be especially as fast as we are running there. So I just screwed up and didn't, you know, was obviously not concentrating as good as I needed to be, and gave up time to Carl there and Carl got a run on us and once we were able to hold him off there, we started pulling away every corner. It just forced him to make a last ditch effort with two corners to go and looked at him in the mirrors and looked like he got shot out of a cannon straight across the grass there.

So, you know, I don't know what happened to him other than I know he missed the corner. And at that point, spotter said there was no pressure from behind and had one more corner to make to win the race.

Q. You and Gordon are pretty much the two best on road courses last five or six years, have you ever had a battle like you had with him today in of all the times you raced together on the road courses, this may be the best battle you've had.
TONY STEWART: I think we had a better battle at Sonoma three or four years ago. I think Jeff broke a transmission that day but we had a good battle up front to where neither one of us were saving anything at that point. We both felt the importance of being in the lead and showing the other one that we had a better car at that point. But that's what's fun. It's fun to race Jeff. I mean, when you have a day like today and the laps that we were ahead of Jeff and could drive away from him a little bit, it makes you feel good and you know you're out running the best that's been out here.

Any time that you can run with Jeff like that, you have the confidence with race with him, we never had any close moments with each other today, we raced each other with respect and, you know, that's what makes racing with Jeff fun here. You know that when you have a good day here and you out run them that you did an excellent job. You're not going to back into it with Jeff out there.

Q. Can you tell us how your relationship with Jeff has changed since the altercation here seven years ago?
TONY STEWART: Seven years ago? You're going to bring up something that happened seven years ago?

Q. How your relationship has changed?
TONY STEWART: Oh, it's just fine now. I think we have a pretty good relationship now.

Q. Has is evolved? Is there something that helped in your relationship with him?
TONY STEWART: You're really digging deep to try to find something. I mean, obviously I mean, do you have siblings? Did you have brothers and sisters? Did you ever get in fights with him? Didn't it normally work itself out? That's kind of the way it happens here, too. Especially when you're around each other 120 days a year. There's mutual respect.

And it was fun being able to, I felt, a big honor, Jeff deciding to come and run in the Prelude this year. When he had not been on dirt in 16 years and the first time he comes back to dirt he decides to run at an event that I came up with; that made me feel good and honored that he wanted to do that. The best part of night for me was seeing him when he came in after his first hot lap session, when he took his helmet off he was grinning from ear to ear. It reminds you there's more to this racing thing than just winning races and trophies and prize money. There's a day we all quit driving and it's about the relationships you make along the way, and you know, you're going to have battles and rivalries with guys that are strong competitors with you, and you know, that's to be expected. But at the same time, there's a huge admiration and respect when you race guys like that, too. I think we both realize that.