"Who would have ever thought you can win a Winston Cup championship with six DNFs?" Stewart said. "The year Bobby won (teammate Bobby Labonte won the title in 2000), not only did he not have any DNFs, I think he only missed completing a perfect season by seven or nine laps."

	Stewart won the title by 38 points.

Yet despite all the negatives and resulting publicity, the Indiana native somehow managed to pull everything together to win the title in one of the most exciting championship chases ever.

But now that's all behind him. He begins the defense of his title in less than two weeks with a completely clean sheet of paper. All the adversity that marked his rise to the championship last season has been wiped clean. The question now is whether Stewart can do it all again, but with a lot less drama.

"I honestly can't imagine our season being any worse than it was last year," Stewart said. "People say how can you say that considering you won the Winston Cup championship? We started off 43rd in points. I don't want to leave Daytona with 43rd in points this year.

"I don't want to have to battle all the adversity that we had to go through last year, all of the headaches and hassles. And I think we are a lot better prepared for just about anything that comes our way this year. We don't have to answer the question of can we win a championship and can we overcome the adversity issue. I think we have answered those questions to everybody. I told the team, you know, it's my goal to win the Winston Cup championship two years in a row. Absolutely.

"I think I probably appreciate it the most because I feel like we did it under the worst circumstances. We did it the hardest way you can imagine. All of the stupid stuff I did off the track coupled up with six DNFs. To think we could have done it with six DNFs, that made us feel pretty proud about what we did. I think if we can have a season that's half that bad on and off the track it will make for a fun season this coming year."

Stewart has developed a tendency to become a champion one of two ways: the hard way, like he did last season, and the way of repetition, as he did during his sprint and midget car days. Stewart won the USAC National Midget Series title in 1994, only to come back the next season to not only repeat as Midget champ, but incredibly win titles in two other classes, too: the national Sprint and Silver Crown championships.

"They said the same thing in '94 when I won my first USAC championship," Stewart said. "They said it's even harder next year to defend it. In '95, I only won three championships. The way I look at it, we've just got to go out and do the same things we did last year (and) we need to stay out of trouble. If we can do that, I feel we will have a better start to the year."

Heading into the season-opener at Daytona on Feb. 16, there remains some uncertainty on the race worthiness of Stewart's new car for 2003 -- he and teammate Labonte have switched from Pontiac to Chevrolet. The new body style will get its first test under race conditions at Daytona.

At the same time, there's little or no uncertainty about Stewart's mind set: he says his attitude is much more relaxed heading into this season, as opposed to the pressure he felt throughout the second half of 2002 as he mounted his drive toward the title.

"My number one goal is to have fun this year," Stewart said. "I had more fun leading up to the season over the winter than I've had in a long time. I'm probably the best prepared to go out and start racing again. This is the first good year where I feel ready and prepared to go back racing."

Yet, despite being champion, Stewart enters the season with what he claims is an improved attitude that will be marked by patience, as well as being more thoughtful of the words that come out of his mouth. Stewart also says success has not changed him one iota.

"Everybody said this is going to change and this is what I have to do, that's what I'm going to have to do," he said. "Honestly, I haven't had to do anything differently than what I've done in the last four years of Winston Cup racing. I haven't changed a bit. I'm still the same person, still the same me. Nothing about me has changed. I won the championship, won a lot of money and a lot of the neat things that go along with it, but I haven't changed at all."

At the same time, Stewart admits the winding road he took to the championship has him thinking he'll actually be running two different races each week this season: the one on the track and the one against the media, many who criticize him unmercifully at times.

	“	I think I probably appreciate (the 2002 championship) the most because I feel like we did it under the worst circumstances. We did it the hardest way you can imagine. All of the stupid stuff I did off the track coupled up with six DNFs. ... I think if we can have a season that's half that bad on and off the track it will make for a fun season. ”
		— Stewart

"One thing I always said, I will never ask anybody to lie for me or cover up anything I do," Stewart said. "If I did something stupid, say I did it. But you don't have to write that I did something stupid for the next eight months. It happens one time and it is over with until I do the next stupid one. Once you write about it one time, be done with it. That's the one thing that disappointed me about what you say or what you do because nobody will ever leave it alone. I have already answered questions this year about battling the adversity last year; what are we going to do this year?

"I will probably do two or three stupid things this year just like I've done all three years I have been in Winston Cup Racing. I am a human being just like everybody else. We all make mistakes. The problem is a lot of the media won't let it go and let it go on. And that's the thing that keeps people from being able to speak their minds and be open about their thoughts. We are so scared of the consequences that the media crucifies us with on it.

"If we are getting crucified for every little topic that's out there in the garage area, then it makes us all pull back. All of us drivers do that. I am probably the one guy that's probably not as scared of you guys as most but even I'm getting paranoid now. I didn't think that would happen. You guys control that, not us. If you are fair about what you write each week it leads us as drivers to feel a little more open and not be so reserved about what we say. We will give you fair comments if they are reported that way."

Now that he's won the first of what he hopes are many championships, Stewart has another jewel in his sights: winning the circuit's most prestigious race, the Daytona 500. Winning the season-opener would be a perfect opportunity for him to throw down the gauntlet for the kind of year he hopes to have in 2003.

"I don't want to start the year the way we did last year, that's for sure," Stewart said. "If it happens that way, I'm not going to be concerned about it. We have proven to everybody that you can leave Daytona 43rd in points and still come back and win.

"You have to put in perspective what's the goal for the year. If your goal is to win the Daytona 500, you put all of your emphasis on the Daytona 500. If your goal is to win the Winston Cup Championship, you have to treat the Daytona 500 the same as you do the Brickyard 400 or any other race on the schedule. There is not much I can do to prepare for the Daytona 500. It's more the team. We are treating it as another Daytona 500.

"Do I want to win it? Absolutely. Now that we won a Winston Cup championship, I would love to win a Daytona 500. But if we don't win, we go to Rockingham, Vegas, Atlanta, we take it one week at a time and just do the best you can."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com.