FanHouse TonyStewart

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) -- Tony Stewart is off to such a strong first season as a team owner, he's already open to expansion.

The Sprint Cup Series points leader said Friday he'd consider adding a third team to Stewart-Haas Racing next year if the right combination was available. Although he promised his team not to expand too quickly, their success so far this season has made him consider his options.

"I wanted to make sure we had two cars that were competitive and had a chance to win a championship," he said Friday at Infineon Raceway. "I'm proud of the fact that I think we're at that point. So if the right situation came along, we would entertain it."

Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Infineon Raceway could very well make or break the season of two underrated drivers who are teammates by virtually all definitions of the word.

Marcos Ambrose, who drives for JTG-Daugherty Racing, essentially a satellite of Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR), and David Reutimann, who won his first Cup race for MWR last month at Lowe's Motor Speedway, are two humble and subdued drivers making a lot of noise on the track this year. But the road course in Sonoma, Calif., could mean totally different things to the duo.

BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) -- The most surprised person to find Mark Martin in Victory Lane at Michigan International Speedway was the driver himself.

The 50-year-old NASCAR star has run well but has had to deal with considerable bad luck this season. It looked like more of the same Sunday when the battery in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet began to fail before the halfway mark in the LifeLock 400 Sprint Cup race.

Martin turned off everything in the car that he could, nursing it as best he could. Then he realized the race was going to be a fuel economy run.

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.

Musings, rumblings and ramblings from Geoffrey Miller after Saturday night's Sprint All-Star Challenge

'Wooooooooo!' to LMS, NASCAR

I'm not sure who makes the final call on the All-Star race format, but Saturday night's version is about as a good as it gets. That 10-lap finale? Adjectives don't describe that, but honorary race director Ric Flair's trademark "Woooooo!" does.

'Woooooo!' Part Deux

The single funniest moment of the night? Joey Logano's Ric Flair imitation after being announced as the fan vote winner. [Watch here at 1:16]

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) -- Tony Stewart won his first race as a team owner Saturday night, breaking through for a $1 million payday with a victory in the annual All-Star race.

Stewart passed Matt Kenseth with two laps to go of a thrilling final 10-lap shootout to win his first All-Star event in 11 previous starts. It was the first victory since he left Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of last year, after two championships and 10 successful seasons, to become co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing.

Kyle Busch celebrated his 24th birthday Saturday night with his third win in Richmond. Here's a look at it from a feature we like to call Sprint Cup Numbers:

2.751 - Kyle Busch's margin of victory in seconds over Tony Stewart, the largest of the 2009 season

3 - Wins Kyle Busch had over the weekend after also taking the Nationwide Series race and a Denny Hamlin charity race

4.895 - Average running position, behind Jeff Gordon (4.198) and teammate Denny Hamlin (3.510)

There's a lot of folks in the NASCAR world that said Tony Stewart was straight crazy to leave his championship-winning team of Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2009 season.

Me? I didn't exactly make a prediction to stay on the safe side, mainly because I know how Stewart always produces when the odds are against him.

But for all of those that said Stewart and hired teammate Ryan Newman wouldn't find success, the still-young Stewart-Haas Racing is proving the doubters to be completely wrong.