Stewart pulls into Victory Lane again

LOUDON, N.H. -- Tony Stewart climbed the fence in front of the grandstand in what has become his trademark victory celebration.

And a crowd of 100,000 at New Hampshire International Speedway roared its approval Sunday as he grabbed the checkered flag and pumped his fist in the air -- just as he did two weeks earlier after a victory at Daytona. He called himself fat then, and this time heaped on more self-deprecating humor.

"Trust me, I'll be glad to be panting like a dog when I get up there," he said. "It's something they like and I'll keep doing it for them."

Stewart said he needs a personal trainer.

"Yes, I'm still too old and too fat to be doing that stuff," the 34-year-old driver said. "I'm probably going to fall and bust my butt before its over. I'm glad they let me go through the gate instead of climbing back down."

Stewart started 13th and wound up winning for the third time in four races, passing at will inside and outside in a dominant performance in the New England 300.

"It was as good as I thought," Stewart said of his car. "This thing was awesome from the start. As soon we got to the front, I knew we had a great car, but you don't know what they're showing."

The win was his second on this track and 22nd of Stewart's career. He also won in Sonoma, Calif., and Daytona, and has posted finishes of second and fifth in his last five starts.

"We feel like we're on top of the world," crew chief Greg Zipadelli said.

Stewart began a run of dominance after passing Ryan Newman on the 51st lap. But Kurt Busch, trying to become the only driver to win three times on the track after sweeping the races last year, got by with 60 laps to go.

Zipadelli was asked whether he thought Stewart had taken too much out of his car.

"He just told me to relax, that he'd get back up there," Zipadelli said.

Stewart did just that, reclaiming the lead after he and Kurt Busch banged twice five laps later. But he said he wasn't as dominant late in the race because the other teams began adjusting and closing the gap.

"I played with them for a while," he said, alluding to the first half of the event.

But he knew he had his hands full with the Busch Brothers later on.

"Kyle Busch was able to stay with us longer," Stewart said. "Kyle was almost good enough to get by and Kurt did get by. But once our tires came in, we were able to get by him."

The most defining moment of the race came when Stewart moved from fourth to second on lap 68 by passing Rusty Wallace on the outside and cutting inside Kyle Busch just a few hundred feet later.

Race leader Scott Wimmer nearly became Stewart's third conquest of the lap. Wimmer barely kept the lead at the line, then Stewart went by less than a half-lap later.

His Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet led 232 of 300 laps and beat the Ford of Kurt Busch by 0.851 seconds on The Magic Mile. It was the eighth top-10 finish in the last 11 races for Stewart, third in the NASCAR Nextel Cup standings.

"Tony was just too strong today," said Kurt Busch, who overcame a spinout on the 35th lap. "It's good we had a car that could come back."

Points leader Jimmie Johnson, twice a winner here in 2003, finished 13th. He leads fifth-place finisher Greg Biffle by 77 points in the series standings. Stewart is 85 points back.

"They're on a tear right now," Biffle said. "This is Tony's kind of track."

Series champion Kurt Busch moved from 10th to fifth in the points race.

"I would have loved to have won today," he said. "But we're not on our last thread."

Stewart, the 2002 Cup champion, got his sixth career victory here in July 2000. A year earlier -- while seeking the first win of his career -- rookie Stewart ran out of gas while holding a substantial lead with less than three laps remaining.

Third in the $5.1 million race was Stewart's teammate, Bobby Labonte. Next came the Chevy of Kyle Busch and Biffle's Ford.

Stewart averaged 102.608 mph in a race slowed 10 times by 49 laps of caution -- including once for rain, which also delayed the start by 24 minutes. There were 14 lead changes among nine drivers.

Kasey Kahne, Newman, Rusty Wallace, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth completed the top 10.