FanHouse Stewart Haas Racing

If I had said this six months ago, you would have insisted that I'd lost my last marble. But now the notion doesn't seem so crazy, does it? I pick Tony Stewart to win the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.

That's right - my money's on "Smoke" and I'm feeling pretty confident given the way he's behaving lately. Taking the point lead at Dover, and winning for the first time as a car owner a week later at Pocono, sealed the deal for me, but let me point out that six months ago I was in the minority who believed in the notion that Stewart-Haas Racing would actually succeed.

This week Tony Stewart is holding his annual, HBO pay-per-view all-star charity race, a multi-million dollar fundraiser that he named, the "Prelude to the Dream."

As of Sunday afternoon's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Dover, Del., it's clear Stewart -- the new championship leader -- is already living the dream, no matter how unlikely or far fetched it may have seemed five months ago.