Stewart promises not to panic

Stewart was third in the points standings at this time last year. having won the corresponding race at Loudon, but crashed on lap 91 of yesterday's encounter after being hit by pole-sitter Ryan Newman, who was two laps down at the time.

Stewart spun into the wall and damaged his radiator, causing lengthy repairs, meaning he finished a disappointing 37th, 23 laps off the lead.

With only seven races to go now until the Chase field is set for NASCAR's ten-race, ten-driver play-off, Stewart is in danger of not making the cut and defending his title.

Aside from victory in this month's Pepsi 400 at Daytona and third at Pocono last month, Stewart's summer has been a disaster. He lost strong finishes at Chicagoland when he ran out of fuel and Sears Point when a cylinder in his engine broke.

His crash yesterday joins accidents at Michigan and Charlotte. The latter resulted in a broken shoulder, which meant Ricky Rudd took over the majority of driving duties at Dover.

"It is frustrating, but there is nothing we can do about it," Stewart said. "We have a great group of guys here who will do everything they can to get us back out there to do what we can.

"We've still just got to take it a week at a time. You can't dictate who is going to wreck us and stuff like that."

Stewart squarely put the blame for yesterday's accident at Newman's door.

"It's clear that he's not going to make the Chase, so he doesn't care about the guys who are worrying about it and trying to make it themselves," Stewart said.

"I got wrecked by Ryan. Everybody races each other different. There are guys that are really good at give and take and there are guys that aren't. Ryan is one of those guys who is not good at the giving part. He's really good at taking, but he's not very good at giving.

"We're racing everybody the way they race us and most of the guys get it, but there are a couple of them who don't.

"It's been that way since he's started. He's not the only one who's had problems with that. We've had problems with both Busch brothers. We've had problems with Greg Biffle. But as time goes on, they learn and they get it. Ryan is one of those guys that just doesn't get it yet.

"There are about four or five guys out there that only care about one person and that's themselves. They don't care about the other 42 guys that they have to share the race track with and race with each week."