Stewart wins at Pocono

The two-time Sprint Cup champion had already won the non-points All-Star race last month, but today's victory allows him to become the first driver to win a championship event while racing for his own squad, since Ricky Rudd did so for the last time at Martinsville in 1998.

Stewart had started last after switching to his back up car for following an incident on Saturdays' first practice, where he damaged his primary machine. For that reason he lost the chance of starting from pole position after qualifying got rained out on Friday, but that didn't stop him from fighting for victory.

The driver nicknamed 'Smoke' made a quick recovery from 43rd place on the grid and by lap 40 he was already inside the top-ten. He steadily moved up until being in contention up front, where Carl Edwards had looked as the man to beat for most of the afternoon.

Stewart first led on lap 77 when those ahead of him pitted and he ran a couple of laps longer, showing good fuel mileage from early on.

When the caution came out for the fifth time on lap 159, 41 from the chequered flag, Edwards led the field into the pits. Although Stewart had lost pole position, he didn't lose the benefit of having the first pit-stall and with a quick stop he was able to make the most of it, coming out ahead of Edwards to lead the pack on the following double-file restart.

With 35 laps remaining the green flag waved for the last time and it looked unlikely that the leaders would be able to go the distance without stopping for fuel again. As laps went by Stewart continued to lead but the lack of cautions started to show red numbers for those making fuel calculations, including Stewart's team.

Kasey Kahne put pressure on Stewart for a while, until he decided to pit for a splash-and -go. Immediately Stewart started saving fuel, while behind him both Edwards and Jimmie Johnson had being doing so for a while already.

With five laps to go Stewart began to switch off his engine on the long one-kilometre plus front stretch, to try to save enough to make it to the end. Not only he succeeded at it, but also he still had enough gas to do a couple of burnouts after taking and impressive and well-deserved win.

"That was just good coaching from Darian [Grubb, crew chief]," said Stewart about the last stint of the race. "I mean, Darian Grubb was giving me the intervals and just kept me running the pace he wanted me to run.

"It's hard you hate to have to do that and you hate to be in that situation but that's kind of the situation the weather put us in there. We're just thankful we could make it.

"That's due to Hendrick horsepower and their engine department. They make good power and they make good mileage too."

Once believed to be the king of fuel saving in NASCAR, Edwards finished second scoring his best result of the season after leading more than half of the distance. Jimmie Johnson had overtaken him with two laps to go but the reigning champion ran out of fuel on the last lap allowing the Roush Fenway racer to regain the place.

"I didn't think Tony could save that much fuel, but he did a really good job," Edwards said. "Our car was getting great fuel mileage all day. I'm just really proud of my guys. We were great on pit road - Tony beat us off of pit road that last stop by about three-quarters of a car length or something, but that's primarily because of his pit stall

"But my guys did a great job. They stepped it up. We ran up front all day. I think we led the most laps. That's a good step. I'd really like to be out there with the trophy, but it's good for points."

David Reutimann made the same strategy work for him finishing third, while Jeff Gordon, who had struggled most of the day despite starting up front, made the most of a strategy switch on the last caution. When the leaders pitted for the last time Gordon stayed out to lead for a few laps, gambling on a possible rain.

Although it actually rained for a while, it was not enough to stop the race. But those extra laps he stayed out allowed him to pit later than the leaders in order to have more fuel for the closing laps, helping him claim a good fourth-place finish.

Ryan Newman rounded out the top-five recovering from a plug problem to score his sixth consecutive top-ten finish, which now promotes him to fourth in the driver standings.

Marcos Ambrose was sixth also gambling on fuel and passing Johnson on the last lap. The reigning champion had charged back from a penalty for entering the pits while they were closed, after leading the race for 31 laps early on.

Juan Pablo Montoya recovered from being a lap down to make his fuel-gamble pay off with eighth place ahead of Jeff Burton and Sam Hornish Jr. Behind them Greg Biffle was the best of those who pitted following the last caution, taking home an eleventh-place finish.

Among the top-twelve in the standings the biggest loser of the day was Denny Hamlin, who finished several laps down after his car switched off twice in the first 13 laps due to fuel pressure problems. He slid down to 12th in the points, while Mark Martin, who was among the first to pit for fuel in the closing laps, finished 19th and is now out of the top-twelve in the standings.

Dale Earnhardt Jr was invisible for most of the day and he finished down in 27th place on his second weekend alongside new crew chief Lance McGrew.

Pos  Driver               Make        Laps
 1.  Tony Stewart         Chevrolet   200
 2.  Carl Edwards         Ford        200
 3.  David Reutimann      Toyota      200
 4.  Jeff Gordon          Chevrolet   200
 5.  Ryan Newman          Chevrolet   200
 6.  Marcos Ambrose       Toyota      200
 7.  Jimmie Johnson       Chevrolet   200
 8.  Juan Montoya         Chevrolet   200
 9.  Jeff Burton          Chevrolet   200
10.  Sam Hornish Jr       Dodge       200
11.  Greg Biffle          Ford        200
12.  Clint Bowyer         Chevrolet   200
13.  Jamie McMurray       Ford        200
14.  Casey Mears          Chevrolet   200
15.  Kasey Kahne          Dodge       200
16.  Matt Kenseth         Ford        200
17.  Michael Waltrip      Toyota      200
18.  Martin Truex Jr      Chevrolet   200
19.  Mark Martin          Chevrolet   200
20.  Reed Sorenson        Dodge       200
21.  Brian Vickers        Toyota      200
22.  Kyle Busch           Toyota      200
23.  Joey Logano          Toyota      200
24.  Kevin Harvick        Chevrolet   200
25.  Elliott Sadler       Dodge       200
26.  David Ragan          Ford        200
27.  Dale Earnhardt Jr    Chevrolet   200
28.  Bobby Labonte        Ford        200
29.  Paul Menard          Ford        200
30.  AJ Allmendinger      Dodge       199
31.  Robby Gordon         Toyota      199
32.  Scott Speed          Toyota      199
33.  Regan Smith          Chevrolet   198
34.  David Stremme        Dodge       198
35.  John Andretti        Chevrolet   198
36.  Dexter Bean          Dodge       196
37.  Kurt Busch           Dodge       182
38.  Denny Hamlin         Toyota      178
39.  Sterling Marlin      Dodge        56
40.  Dave Blaney          Toyota       37
41.  Joe Nemechek         Toyota       36
42.  David Gilliland      Chevrolet    34
43.  Patrick Carpentier   Toyota       32