One year ago, Tony Stewart was nursing injuries from a horrific wreck at Darlington Raceway that left fans in attendance speechless.

The accident dropped him to a 36th-place finish and Stewart left the fifth race of the year 12th in the standings.

	Tony Stewart is just 57 points out of the lead in the Winston Cup standings.

That was nothing new to the Indiana native. In fact, 12th was an improvement over his performance that far in his first three years on the circuit.

This year, the improvement continues -- big time.

Stewart finished 10th last weekend at Darlington and is now second in the points race -- just 57 points behind leader Matt Kenseth.

"It's still really early, but we're happy with the way things are so far," Stewart's crew chief Greg Zipadelli said. "We're pretty smooth right now."

Stewart's tendency to set a torrid second-half pace in the summer has allowed him to feel confident entering June as long as he is in the top-10 -- even if he's 10th. But to be in second, with a race at Bristol Motor Speedway on tap, puts Stewart in position to really psych out some competitors. After all, if he's this good this early, imagine how good he'll be down the stretch.

"I think it's tough to speculate this early in the season, but certainly he's off to a great start," Dale Jarrett said. "And we all know how good he usually runs at the end, so they're definitely doing something right over there."

And they are definitely feeling alright over there, right now. Especially with a race at Stewart's favorite track coming up this weekend.

"It has always been my favorite track," Stewart said. "Anytime anybody has ever asked me what my favorite track was, I've always said, 'Bristol.' It's just because it's exciting. You can't rest there at all. You can be patient, but you can't rest."

Stewart has always spoken about things like aerodynamics with a certain loathing. So it's not surprising that Bristol would be his favorite.

"Bristol is about what driver and which team does the best job and not about whose car is more aerodynamic or who has more horsepower," he said. "It's back to basics, really. You won't hear anybody talking about aero pushes or downforce or dyno numbers. You'll hear them talking about handling and getting up on that wheel and making sure you keep the fenders on the car all day.

"It's nice to know that we can throw out some of those variables from the equation for one week and worry about beating guys because we did a better job of setting our race car up and I did a better job driving. If you can do that, it doesn't matter what you're driving."

Stewart said driving on Indiana tracks in Winchester and Salem when he was racing open-wheel cars helped prepare him for what it's like racing in the half-mile, high-banked Bristol confines. But it didn't prepare him for what it would be like to first walk into the track, which looks more like a football venue.

"I looked up and never saw a sight like what I saw that day," he said of his first trip there in 1996. "I felt like I walked into a football stadium with the stands the way that they are. I never even saw the track for the first 30 seconds. I saw all the grandstands and I thought, 'Man, they put that many people in this small race track?' I didn't think it could be done. Since then they've put in even more seats. Each year it keeps getting bigger and bigger."

Stewart said he didn't want to concentrate too much on his position in the points. Heck, last year he was saying that through October. Still, he's definitely happy with the way the team is going and the way his season is going so far.

And he's definitely happy he's heading into Bristol without the aches and pains he had last year after Darlington.

"That's a plus," he said.

Although, he's sure those aches and pains are on their way.

"It's like being inside of an aluminum trash can with all your buddies hitting on it with ball-peen hammers," Stewart said of the way he xpects his head will feel after racing at Bristol. "It's just loud all day. The atmosphere there is great - having the grandstands all the way around the race track with people so close to the track. It's just an unbelievable feeling. But when the race is over with, you're spent. It takes me a day to recover after that race."

Rupen Fofaria covers NASCAR for The Raleigh News & Observer and is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at rfofaria@newsobserver.com.