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Don't be fooled by the second place finish in Sunday's Chevy Rock & Roll 400, things in the No. 20 camp are not going exactly as planned. Still winless thus far in 2008 and with driver Tony Stewart moving on after ten years, frustration appears to be setting in.
Following his fourth second-place finish of the year, Stewart knew he could have been in better position had his pit crew gotten him out ahead of race winner Jimmie Johnson. After the pair made their way around Martin Truex Jr. - who took only two tires - the race was on for the lead.
As the laps wound down, Stewart mounted a serious charge with just over ten laps remaining. Racing hard for every inch, Stewart's crew came over the radio to telling him, "Ten to go." With frustration in his voice, Smoke cued his radio shouting, "I got him!" Five laps later, the same thing, only this time, Stewart was less thrilled with the distraction. With Johnson pulling away, Stewart could do nothing but watch as another one got away. The two time Cup Series champion has come so close to breaking his winless streak - that dates back to Watkins Glen in August of 2007 - yet, has struggled to put together the complete package needed to win. In his mind, this one was on the pit crew's shoulders. Following the end of the race, Stewart once again cued his radio, disappointingly saying, "We gave another one away today." Quick to keep morale high, crew chief Greg Zipadelli came back with, "We win and lose as a team," but that was not enough for one of the hottest heads in all of NASCAR. After hearing what Zipadelli had to offer, Stewart had to have the last word, "Yeah, the difference is that I got mine back." Upset his crew could not beat the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team off pit road when it mattered most during the final stop, Stewart seemed to be rather put off by the situation. Despite his sour mood following the event, Stewart simply did not want to talk about the poor stop. "Can we for one week just leave it as we run second and we had a good, hard-fought battle and we just fell short," Stewart offered following the event. "I mean, that's the moral of the story. Shoot, we could sit here for hours and try to dissect exactly why we didn't win the race. You know, we still had a good run." With Stewart leaving the organization at the end of the season to build his own organization - Stewart-Haas Racing - and the team preparing to put young Joey Logano behind the wheel come Daytona, things could get very interesting during the final ten races. After ten years of working together, Stewart and Zipadelli are now in the home stretch. If they can put their differences aside and remain focused on contending for the Chase, things should go well for this team. Stewart always tends to be a late-bloomer when it comes to wins, and perhaps that is the case for this year. However, if things do not go according to plan, tensions could potentially continue to rise, leaving this team paying more attention to itself and in-house struggles instead of winning races and going for a third championship.
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