Review Photo/BRIAN FEES Tony Stewart holds up the trophy after winning the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen Monday.

Review Photos/BRIAN FEES Ryan Newman (right) and Patrick Carpentier get tangled up at the Glen Monday.

Stewart wins fifth race at Watkins Glen

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. - Everytime another race is held at Watkins Glen International, the talk begins about who the top road course drivers are.

Names like Jeff Gordon, Boris Said, Ron Fellows and Robby Gordon quickly come to the forefront, but after Monday it's becoming increasingly clear that all of them fall well below the king of The Glen - Tony Stewart.

"It's awesome, I think the bigger honor was last year when we inducted as one of the drivers of the decade here," Stewart said. "This track has just been very good to us. It's neat to have the most wins here."

The victory in the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen was Stewart's fifth in 11 races at the track and he has finished in the top-10 nine times.

Overall Stewart now has 36 career wins in 378 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts and he has secured a spot in the Chase For the Cup, as long as he just starts one of the next four races, and he leads the Chase by 260 points over Jimmie Johnson.

In the early going Monday afternoon, in a race that was postponed Sunday due to rain, it appeared that the car to beat was Kurt Busch, as he jumped out early and led the most laps of any driver at 23.

After a pair of early cautions allowed Marcos Ambrose to move to the front, both Busch and Ambrose pitted and fell back in the pack.

With two more big crashes, on lap 42 and lap 63, Ambrose was able to work his way back toward the front and at the end he finished second.

"We missed it by a little bit," Ambrose said of his chance to make a pass on Stewart and take the lead. "If I had a perfect line and I did everything just right I had a chance at it, but it didn't work out. This is a great track for us."

Stewart knew that Ambrose was fast in spots, but he also knew he had a fast car.

"There were spots on the track where he was better then us, but then there were spots on the track I think we were better then him," Stewart said.

For Ambrose that first caution of the day, on lap 19, helped decide his strategy as he stayed on the track while many of the other drivers pitted.

"When that caution came early, that really set the tone," he said. "That first caution of the day set the strategy for us."

Both Stewart and Ambrose, along with third-place finisher Carl Edwards, each stayed on the track hoping to last on fuel and the gamble paid off.

"Everybody was doing their part today," Stewart said of conserving fuel during the final laps. "The drivers were trying to go Green today and do there part for the environment."

Stewart's crew chief Darian Grubb thought the car had enough fuel to finish, but he did have a few concerns.

"We were very close," he said. "He probably doesn't have enough for a burn out or anything here. But, Tony's a great road racer. His record here speaks for itself."

In the early going Stewart didn't believe his car was fast enough to win, so he had his team make some changes during the first pit stop.

"We weren't good enough in the first run to be fast enough to beat these guys," Stewart said. "The crew did an awesome job on the pit stop. I asked for a lot of changes there so those guys did a great job of getting us in and out of the pits there. We never lost very much track position and we were able to make it up. We had a fast car today."

Kyle Busch led 15 laps on Monday, but twice on the double-file restarts he fell behind Stewart.

"We passed him on both sides," Stewart said. "He lined up on the inside the first time and we got back by him in turn two, then the second time he went to the outside and we took the inside and beat him into turn two. I was proud that we were strong enough to do it from either side.

"With Marcos (Ambrose) there, I didn't want to give him a chance to get to the inside, so we took that inside lane on that last restart and once we got up to the esses up there I felt like we were in good shape."

There were two big wrecks in the race, with the biggest coming on lap 63 as Kasey Kahne got loose and hit Sam Hornish Jr., who careened off the tire wall and took out Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton.

"He (Kasey Kahne) got loose and had to correct and got me sideways. I thought the tires (tire barrier) were probably going to hurt a little bit. I didn't think I was going to get hit by two more cars. It was a pretty big hit, but the cars are safe.

"I've got a couple bumps and bruises, but all in all, I'm pretty good. I'm happy about that and looking forward to getting back out there and, hopefully, having a better weekend next weekend. A rough day for us, a rough weekend. You never want to make highlights like that."

For Gordon, the crash was a painful one.

"It was. It wasn't that hard of hit, it's just my back can't stand too many hits. I really was concerned for Sam (Hornish). He took a heavy hit into the wall, a heavy hit by me and Jeff Burton. I saw him go off into the grass and I knew he was going to come out in front of me and I was just hoping to squeeze by and didn't make it. It just made a rough weekend for the DuPont Chevrolet even worse. Now we just leave here and focus on Michigan."

A similar crash took place in Nationwide practice with Jason Leffler in the same spot, and that time Burton just missed the crash, but he wasn't as lucky Sunday.

"You know what, on Friday in Nationwide practice, Jason Leffler spun in front of me and hit the barriers, hit the tires, and came right back in front of me," Burton said. "When I saw Sam (Hornish) go out, I knew he was coming back. There was nothing I could do. I eyed him and I knew where he was coming and I tried to get slowed up. I knew he was coming back, but there was nothing I could do. So, I wasn't real sure which one I hit or if I hit both of them, but it was a bigger hit than I wanted to have for a while."

The other big crash of the day was between Reed Sorenson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the inner loop and it left Earnhardt in 39th place and Sorenson in 31st, after both wound up in the garage, but made it back late in the race.

"Going into (Turn) 3, I mashed the break and it worked for a split second and then it went to the floor like it blew a hose. It was a break line or something. I tried to miss the No. 43 and couldn't do a good job at that, but there wasn't much I could do."

After starting 33rd, Edwards finished third, followed by Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle, who moved from 12th to 10th in the Chase.

"It was a great run for us," Biffle said. "I could've gotten the 18 (Kyle Busch) - he was running out of brakes and my brakes were awesome, but I was out of gas. My fuel light was on every time I went around the carousal, so I just had to save, you know! We weren't going to make it. I just saved, and that was it."

For Edwards moving up to third was big.

"From 33rd to third, that was a good, solid day for us," Edwards said. "You know, I'm really proud of my guys for the strategy, it was great."

Juan Pablo Montoya finished sixth, despite some problems with the car.

"I think something broke in the left front suspension on our car and I was just plowing turning right," Montoya said. "We came through some stuff and finished sixth, so that was the goal. It was a good day for our Target Chevy team."

Kurty Busch was seventh, followed by Max Papis, Clint Boyer and Denny Hamlin.

"I felt we had a strong car," Kurt Busch said. "I passed guys all day. Fuel mileage bit us huge. Finished seventh, that's all right, but man we were faster then that."

Pole-setter Johnson finished 12th, and had some struggles, including spinning out in turn one, just a lap after Ryan Newman and Patrick Carpentier got into it in one, and the same spot where Joey Logano had trouble and got spun earlier in the race.

"We just kept getting looser and looser," Johnson said. "We thought the track would tighten up and come to us, bit it just went the other way. Spun out down there in one. That didn't help us any. There was some dirt on the track. Came to the braking zone, I could see dirt and crash blowing around and thought, 'oh man, there I go,' and sure enough, away I went. But we are getting smarter and I'm learning a lot.

"It wasn't the performance we wanted today, but we fought hard and we got our first pole so we had some bright spots."