Stewart closes ground on Edwards

Tony Stewart hadn’t won a race all season and didn’t list himself as a championship contender when asked to handicap the field before NASCAR’s 10-race playoffs started.

Now, his third championship is there for the taking.

“We’ve had one of those up-and-down years and we’re having a run in this Chase and now we’re hungry,” Stewart said after his third victory in the first seven Chase races moved him to eight points behind leader Carl Edwards. “We’re hungry for this. I feel like our mindset into these next three weeks, we’ve been nice all year to a lot of guys, given guys a lot of breaks.

“We’re cashing tickets in these next three weeks.”

Stewart won Sunday in Martinsville, Va., by passing Jimmie Johnson on a restart with three laps to go.

Stewart then playfully called out Edwards.

“He better be worried. That’s all I’ve got to say,” Stewart said in Victory Lane, a broad smile spreading across his face. “He’s not going to sleep for the next three weeks.”

Edwards laughed when told about Stewart’s challenge.

“He’s wound up. He won the race. We’ll see what happens at Texas,” Edwards said. “I told you guys I thought he was one of the guys that could win this race and be a guy that you’d have to beat for the championship and I think he’s proving that right now.”

Stewart moved from fourth place, 19 points behind leader Edwards, to second, eight points back as several contenders got caught up in a season-high 18 caution flags.

Even Stewart had trouble, at one point having to apologize to race leader Denny Hamlin for racing him hard to stay on the lead lap. And that was with less than 200 laps to go.

“I was pretty mad all day, but I was the only guy who didn’t get in a wreck with somebody, so I was kind of proud of that,” Stewart said, adding that crew chief Darian Grubber, his spotter and several team members told him before the race to stop being so nice on the track.

The winning pass, to Johnson’s outside, surprised even him.

“I don’t think anybody has ever passed Jimmie Johnson on the outside,” he said, crediting Grubb for making the right calls and adjustments all race long. “I don’t think we had the best race car today, by any means, but we had the most determined pit crew.”

VETTEL WINS IN INDIA

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel won the inaugural Formula One Indian Grand Prix in New Delhi, staying on pace to equal the record for wins in a season.

Vettel led from start to finish, building a comfortable lead and finishing 8.4 seconds ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button, with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso a distant third at the Buddh International Circuit.

“All in all it was a smooth race, the car was very well balanced,” Vettel said. “I’m very proud to be the first winner here in India.”

Vettel has 11 wins this season, and victories in the final two races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi would equal Michael Schumacher’s record of 13 wins in 2004.

LINE CLINCHES NHRA

Jason Line won his second Pro Stock championship Sunday when he advanced to the semifinals of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“At this point in my life, I’ll appreciate this one more,” Line said. “I understand better now how hard it is to achieve that. Five years ago when I won the first, I didn’t realize how hard it is.”

Del Worsham (Top Fuel), Ron Capps (Funny Car), Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle) won the pro categories in the NHRA Big O Tires Nationals.

Line, a 42-year-old Minnesota native, will start the season finale in two weeks at Pomona, Calif., with an insurmountable 199-point lead over KB Racing teammate and reigning champion Greg Anderson.

SPRINT STANDINGS

Unofficial driver standings in NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup:

DriverPoints

Carl Edwards2,273

Tony Stewart2,265

Kevin Harvick2,252

Brad Keselowski2,246

Matt Kenseth2,237

Jimmie Johnson2,230

Kyle Busch2,216

Kurt Busch2,215

Dale Earnhardt Jr.2,200

Jeff Gordon2,197

Denny Hamlin2,193

Ryan Newman2,184