Stewart proud of his team's debut

After taking two titles with Joe Gibbs Racing, Stewart has moved to his own Stewart Haas team for 2009, and he marked the squad's debut with third place in last night's Bud Shootout having briefly led the race.

Stewart admitted that it was only during a full course yellow that he realised how much the achievement meant to him.

"It wasn't till the caution that came after we got the lead there that it was, man, we just led some laps in our first race with our own stuff," said Stewart.

"It's a proud moment when you realise that you've seen everything happen first-hand at the shop and seen it build and develop over the winter, to see how it got here.

"It's not just disappear for the winter and go off and mess around on vacation or whatever, then show up at the track and all of a sudden you go to work again. It's been a little more detailed than that for me this winter.

"I guess it hit a little harder when we led those first laps."

He said the team's Shootout performance had been a major confidence boost.

"I'll be honest - I just wanted to finish the race today," Stewart said.

"I wanted to get through the live pit stop, through the second segment of the race, and just get everybody that chance to get through that first bit of the season.

"Even if we didn't finish the race, as long as we got through that first pit stop, that was going to be good that we got those guys in that mode."

Stewart added that he was also gelling very well with new crew chief Darian Grubb, who has joined from Hendrick Motorsports.

"These last two days were really important for Darian and I to work together," said Stewart. "I'm going to bed tonight with a lot of confidence that I didn't have coming into tonight, just because you just don't know. This was our first test.

"I felt like Darian and I, the communication between us was very, very good. I'm real pleased with the result of that, and that gives us confidence going into not necessarily tomorrow (Daytona 500 qualifying), but when we come back on Wednesday and go back to race practice."