While many figured the new Stewart-Haas Racing would struggle in the early stages of 2009, the team has proved otherwise. A frustrating Speedweeks in Daytona for the No. 39 team seemed to reinforce the sentiment of others; however both teams have rebounded to become serious contenders week-in and week-out.

This weekend at the Martinsville Speedway, owner/driver Tony Stewart ran the majority of the race in the top-5, while Ryan Newman fought his way from the back of the pack to finish an impressive sixth. 

“I’m just real proud of our guys on the Old Spice/Office Depot team and real proud of Ryan (Newman) and his U.S. Army team,” Stewart said after his strong run. “We both had a great weekend. This is a place I like, obviously, and we’re back up there running where we belong.”

“I knew we had a good U.S. Army Chevy from practice and it was just a matter of getting it right and being patient,” Newman added. “The guys did a good job making adjustments and we made a lot of changes today. The pit stops were good -- the bottom line is we stayed headstrong and got our positioning back and got up to sixth. A good run for both Stewart-Haas Racing cars today.  The first half of the race the car was really, really tight. There wasn't much I could do with it. There at the end it came to us and we had a pretty good long run car too. We just made the best of it today.”

After starting deep in the running order (27^th), Newman methodically worked his way through traffic and towards the front of the field while the boss got the job done out front. The No. 14 of Stewart was a staple in the top-5 for the majority of Sunday’s event and once again proved the two-time series champion has not missed a beat. 

Racing towards the front of the field, Stewart explained he was never concerned about Newman during the event, but knew they were not lapping him – which is always a good sign.

“I never saw him during the day, which was good,” Stewart said of his teammate. “We stayed around the top five all day. Not seeing him was a good thing, because that meant he was still on a lead lap, was still coming and gaining spots. On a caution every now and then I could see where he was at track position-wise. But had no idea he had had such a strong run right there at the end to get to sixth.

“I was more worried about myself at the time,” Stewart added. “It's not that you weren't worried about Ryan, but you got a job to do and it takes a hundred percent of your concentration just to do that.”

“It was an awesome day for Stewart-Haas,” said Bobby Hutchens, director of competition for Stewart-Haas Racing. “Tony ran up in the top five for most of the day and thank God Ryan kept fighting and fought his way up through there and got our car pretty good. I think without a restart there were some guys on two tires, he may have also finished in the top five.

“Well, you’ve got to give them credit,” Hutchens went on to say. “The whole time we were at Daytona, they could have all packed it in (but), they’ve all had their heads up. They’ve been digging and at the end of the day; hey, they’re going to overcome this and they move up to 18th in points this week, so that’s pretty big.”

With their impressive run at Martinsville, Stewart added the first career top-5 for Stewart-Haas Motorsports and sent a clear message to the competition. Heading to Texas next weekend, Stewart has jumped to seventh in the series standings, while Newman continues to climb out of the whole dug at Daytona to eighteenth.