Tony Stewart gets first win of year in opening race of the Chase

• Reprints

Updated: November 30, 2011 12:18AM

By his standards, Tony Stewart has had a “miserable year.”

And as much as he loves racing, he was the only one in the house glad to see the rainout of the GEICO 400 on Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway, the first in the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup. His migraine headache was so bad that he needed the day to recover.

Monday, his opponents were hurting as Stewart captured his first win of the season, third at Chicagoland Speedway and 40th of his career, tying one of his heroes, Mark Martin, on the all-time list.

“We couldn’t pick a better weekend to get the first win of the year,” Stewart said. “We felt there were three or four we could have gotten before this and let get away. It’s been a miserable year.

“But the last three weeks we have started getting it together. It didn’t take long in this race to figure out we were solid. It was just a matter of getting track position.”

A Chase qualifier who came in tied for ninth in points, Stewart started 26th. By the midway point of the 267-lap race, he was challenging for the lead. He first got there in Lap 209, then set the pace.

“The way [non-Chase] guys were racing today, you had to put yourself in some bad positions, but once you got through you were able to move forward,” Stewart said. “Once we got in the top four, as long as we did not shoot ourselves in the foot, we thought we’d have a nice, solid top five.”

Kevin Harvick, the Chase points leader, charged hard down the stretch and finished second, less than a second behind Stewart.

But from third place on back, everything scrambled on Lap 267. Because of a caution on Lap 213, most of the contenders attempted to finish the final 50-plus laps without fueling. It worked for some.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he could not have gone another lap, but he conserved enough fuel to pass a few of those running dry. He finished third. Carl Edwards zipped up to fourth, Brad Keselowski to fifth and Kurt Busch to sixth.

“Obviously, we gained a lot of spots there at the end with the guys who were short on fuel,” Earnhardt said. “At the end, our car was really good. I was happy with being able to adjust the car and improve during the race. was never worried about our fuel mileage. I started backing off saving gas with about 20 to go.”

The Chase drivers on the other end of the fuel spectrum were Ryan Newman, five-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson, pole-sitter Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon. Newman finished eighth, Johnson 10th, Kenseth 21st, Busch 22nd and Gordon 24th.

Kenseth, Johnson and Newman were battling for top-five finishes when they ran dry. Kenseth was pushed in Turns 3 and 4 of the final lap by J.J. Yeley, and NASCAR rules allow no assistance on the final lap. So he was relegated to 21st, the position of the first car that was a lap down.

But this was a day to spotlight the Chase competitors.

“I looked up during the race and had gone from 30th to seventh, and I said, ‘We’ve done pretty good,’ ” Harvick said. “Then you look and we’re behind six guys in the Chase. I don’t think that kind of situation is going to be abnormal the rest of the way.”

Harvick remained the points, leader, seven ahead of Stewart and 10 in front of Edwards.

“I hate to have to play the fuel mileage game, but that’s the way we had to do it with when the caution came out today,” Stewart said. “I wanted to pressure Matt [Kenseth, who was leading with about 30 laps remaining]. Once I got by him and in the lead, we started saving fuel. We came closer to running out than I like, but all I wanted to do was keep an interval. My guys had to convince me that [Martin] Truex [who was challenging for the lead at the time] was going to have to pit. Once they sold me on that, we were OK.”

Better than OK, especially considering Stewart was telling reporters last week he didn’t belong in the Chase and wasn’t among the seven drivers he considered serious title contenders.

“We’ve had three good weekends now and that makes me feel better about it, but we still have a long way to go,” Stewart said.