The key to winning the championship is simple: Stewart needs to run a semi-aggressive race. By that, while he would obviously want to add another win at Homestead -- he's already won there twice -- he has to keep in mind that, for the one time this season, he doesn't have to go all-out to win the crown.

But going all-out is his nature. It's what's got him here.

"If we just go out and do what we typically have done and what we've always done, I don't think we'll have to worry about anything this weekend," Stewart said. "We've just got to go out and race hard. I'm sticking to the plan that I've said every week for the last five or six weeks. We're not changing anything. I'm going to race to win and the rest of it will have to take care of itself. Just concentrating on the job at hand is enough of a task to keep you from worrying about the rest of it."

If he does race too hard Sunday, he risks getting into trouble in a crash or suffering a mechanical malfunction. Stewart only has to look back to last Sunday's race at Phoenix when teammate Bobby Labonte exited early due to a blown engine.

At the same time, Stewart will likely be told several times Sunday by both crew chief Greg Zipadelli and Gibbs to back off or give his opponents room on the flat 1½-mile oval. He needs to stay out of harm's, lest he risk getting tangled in a crash.

Perhaps more than anything, and even though his chief motivation is to win every race he's in, Stewart needs to tone down his drive and simply go with the flow. He only has to finish 22nd -- poor by Stewart's standards -- and stay out of trouble to win the championship.

	Tony Stewart's season looked to be beginning on a high note with a Bud Shootout victory.

And staying out of trouble has been the name of Stewart's game for the latter part of 2002.

Perhaps the most unconventional aspect of Stewart's drive for the championship is he's done it, for the most part, while under much more scrutiny than normal. Since his highly-publicized physical encounter with a photographer at the Brickyard 400 in August, Stewart has been a picture of anger management, graciousness and conformity.

It's no wonder, though, considering the alternatives -- he was fined $10,000 and placed on probation for the rest of the season by NASCAR and docked an additional $50,000 from sponsor Home Depot. In addition, Home Depot officials instituted a zero-tolerance mandate for Stewart: if he lost his temper again, he would be gone.

But there is some irony to be be found: Perhaps more than any other driver, Stewart thrives on pressure. He uses adversity as a motivating tool to bring out the best in him.

"To me, I don't feel any pressure, in all reality," Stewart said. "I've been in this situation multiple times. After you deal with so many championships like that, you learn how to deal with it. Worrying is not going to do anything. Feeling pressure -- there is no pressure. I feel like I have the best shot at winning, over the last six or eight races, at Homestead, considering our track record there."

It was just 15 months ago that Stewart elicited a major gasp from the racing community when he told ESPN.com he was considering walking away from NASCAR. He said he was growing weary of the battles, probation and watchful eye cast upon him by NASCAR officials.

He was tired of being singled out and racing with scrutinizing eyes upon him each time he took his No. 20 Pontiac onto a track.

Still, Stewart has since found himself with NASCAR and Home Depot officials watching him everywhere he goes, wondering if his temper would flare up.

Yet, since being placed under those microscopes, Stewart has flourished. He not only won the week following the mess at Indy, but he started on an incredible stretch run. In the 14 races after Indy, he recorded seven top-fives.

"Like we mentioned at times, Tony has stepped over the line and (Indianapolis) was one of them," Gibbs said. "One good thing about Tony is that he has always come right back the next day when it's happened and said, 'Hey, it's my fault.' He's probably done that three or four times.

"We were never close to saying, 'Tony, you're fired.' But, you obviously know that any driver here could do things that would cost him his job. So, we laid out a plan and then sat down and had a big meeting with Tony and several of the people real close to him. We just said, 'This is what we think we need to do. This is what the future needs to look like.'

"I think there has been a dramatic improvement since Indy in the way that Tony has approached things, his self control. I think he's had some times where he would still get upset, for sure. But, they seem to be fewer, so I think we're making progress there."

When asked what has been the most valuable lesson he's learned this season, particularly since being placed on probation, Stewart was adamant that he's continued to do his own thing -- within reason, of course.

"Concentrate on the race team and the rest of it just doesn't seem to matter," he said. "That's been the one thing. The biggest thing is that race team is my family. Spending time concentrating on the car and the team has been more important than dealing with all the other outside distractions."

Not there -- yet
Despite all the anticipation about his impending title, Stewart takes a more cautionary approach.

"I haven't won the title yet this year," he said. "Yeah, I'm very close, but, at the same time, I could lose it. That's what I've been trying to tell (the media) all along, that this isn't done yet."

In addition, Stewart is not a stranger to bad finishes, either. He completed just two laps in the season-opening Daytona 500 before engine problems forced him out, finishing last.

For a driver who can clinch the championship if he finishes 22nd or higher Sunday, Stewart has had a number of lower finishes this season. In fact, he's finished lower than 22nd eight times.

That's why he and Gibbs are taking a guarded approach, knowing all too well that any driver could potentially take Stewart out and end his title hopes.

"I think there is always a fear of that," Gibbs said. "Certainly, I can tell from talking to our drivers that there are certain people that they don't mind racing next to and other people where they are more concerned. You can kind of hear it and you can hear it in the voice of the spotter and you can hear it in our crew chiefs. You don't like to have any personality conflicts on the track when you're in this position, so yeah, I think you worry about that.

"The thing that makes you nervous is this one is different than Bobby (Labonte's), because Bobby wrapped it up the week before. This one, I fully expect it to go to the last lap, because at that racetrack you'll probably have 22 or 23 people on the lead lap, unless someone really runs away and laps some people. We're kind of gearing up for that. We haven't won anything yet. We're taking the approach and always have that you don't win it until you win it. We've got a real challenge there in Mark (Martin) and we're going to do our part and be there at the last lap."

But unlike Gibbs, Stewart is less worried that past conflicts with other drivers -- like rival Jeff Gordon -- will come back to haunt him.

"I hope they race just as hard as they always do," Stewart said. "This is just one of 36 races. We all have to race hard. If 43 guys don't race to win this weekend, I'll be very disappointed. I don't expect anything to change. I have a responsibility with what I do in my car this weekend, due to circumstances. To be honest, I don't expect anybody else to change the way they race. I'd be disappointed if they did."

For a season which began with disappointment and was filled with controversy, Stewart is exactly where he wants to be -- winning the race with just one lap to go.

	“	I hope (the other drivers) race just as hard as they always do. This is just one of 36 races. We all have to race hard. ... I don't expect anything to change. I have a responsibility with what I do in my car this weekend, due to circumstances. To be honest, I don't expect anybody else to change the way they race. I'd be disappointed if they did. ”
		— Stewart

"Every race car driver dreams of being in the position we're in right now," Stewart said. "When I was growing up, I was still racing go-karts until I graduated high school. I thought if I ever reached sprint cars or midget racing in Indiana (his home state), that was going to be a great accomplishment for me in my life. But, I obviously had no clue what my future was going to hold.

"For someone to tell me I was going to win three national championships in one year in midgets and sprint cars and Silver Crown cars and be lucky enough to not only compete at the Indianapolis 500, but to start from the pole my first year and to have an opportunity to win a championship (IRL) in '97 and now, even greater than that, to have the opportunity to try to compete and try to win a Winston Cup championship - not in my wildest dreams could I have ever dreamed that I was going to be in the position we're in now. I'm just thankful."

While Stewart has been prone to knee-jerk reactions, he waxed eloquently this week about his season, his life and how it will potentially change Sunday.

"I've raced for 23 years and, to be honest, I love it for the same reason that I did when I was eight years old," he said. "It was cool because I was the only kid on the block that got to race a go-kart that went 50 miles an hour, let alone drive anything. That was the fun part.

"It's just knowing that you're out there competing with 42 other guys and just trying to go faster than they do. That is what it has always been about. It always seem to amaze me in this day and age how everybody wants to make more out of it than what it is. It's a sport that we have. It's a fascinating sport, and it always boils down to one thing: trying to be faster and get to the finish line before anybody else does. Just knowing that we did a better job that day than anybody else is what has always kept me excited about racing.

"Yeah, I'm happy. If I wasn't happy, I wouldn't be here. I made my father a promise a long time ago when we started racing that the day I wasn't happy doing this anymore, I would quit. I still plan on fulfilling that obligation to my father. I love driving these cars. I love racing with the guys I race with. The crew guys that we race with every week, the car owners, the officials that NASCAR has at the speedways on the weekends - they make this series a lot of fun.

"Sure, there are a lot of things that I still don't understand and there are a lot of things that I still don't agree with. But, there is somebody else that does understand it and somebody else that does see a bigger picture than what I do a lot of times. With that, things do become a lot more clear. Like I say, I'm a simple person."

And unconventional, for sure.

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com.