Team: Joe Gibbs Racing
Car/sponsor/make: No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet
| |  |
| | Stewart |
|
STATS
|
Year
|
Rank
|
Wins
|
Top 5
|
Top 10
|
Best finish
|
|
2002
|
1
|
3
|
15
|
21
|
1st, 3 times
|
|
Career
|
|
15
|
54
|
87
|
1st, 15 times
|
2002 recap
The good: Duh. Pretty much everything that happened on the track, with the exception of two trips to Daytona, was great. That's not to say Stewart had a dominant season on the track. That's simply to say he had a championship season, which included three victories and resulted in his first title.
Season highlight: Winning the championship was undoubtedly the highlight for Stewart, who also called it one of the greatest moments in his life.
The bad: Stewart's was an odd championship season. He finished first despite six DNFs, including one in the season-opening Daytona 500, which he had to pull out of on the third lap. That put him essentially last in the season's first points standings release. For Stewart, however, the bad also included a number of off-track situations that resulted in his team owner, Joe Gibbs, mandating that he see an anger management counselor.
Season lowlight: The Daytona 500 engine failure, which was made worse by the fact Stewart had won the Bud Shootout, an IROC race and finished high in his Gatorade 125, making him the favorite in the 500. That lowlight was followed up by another third-lap pullout on the return trip to Daytona. Others might call his shoving a photographer at Indianapolis a lowlight, too, but Stewart places so much more importance on what happens on the track that the best and worst moments of his year often occur between the green and checkered flags.
|  |
| Tony Stewart was placed on probation, fined and nearly fired. But, through it all, he was brilliant on the track. |
Key stat: 4,800. Stewart won the title with 4,800 points. That's the lowest total for the champion since 1997.
2003 outlook
What needs to be done: Stewart has vowed to cut down on his outside commitments, including those many short-track excursions he so loves. He'll use that new-found free time to devote to the team or just plain relax. Relaxation is important for Stewart, who is very passionate about what he does and sometimes becomes too tightly wound as a result. A calmer Stewart results in a calmer crew, and a calm, cool and collected team is the stuff of champions.
Prediction: Stewart will need to step up his game from last season in order to repeat as champion, because a 4,800-point, six-DNF performance will probably land a racer somewhere else in the top-five this year. But he's ridiculously talented and capable of so much more than what he did last year. Stewart will again be a contender for the title in 2003.
Your take
Can Stewart become the first since Gordon in '97-'98 to repeat as champ? Or are the stars that aligned so perfectly for him last season back out of alignment in 2003? Here are your thoughts on Stewart's prospects for 2003.
Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
