LOUDON, N.H. - Considering the troublesome start to the weekend, it wasn’t a bad visit to New Hampshire for Tony Stewart.
On Friday, the points leader lost control of his No. 14 Chevrolet and tucked it into the New Hampshire Motor Speedway wall. Because of the crash, Stewart had to retire the primary car and turn to his backup, which he had run only once this season. But the backup, the driver, and the team were all good enough yesterday to score a fifth-place finish in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301.
“We were just a little bit off, but we had sparks of brilliance during the day where we were really decent,’’ said Stewart, who leads second-place Jeff Gordon by 69 points. “So we can’t be too disappointed with that.’’
Because qualifying was rained out Friday and the grid was set on the standings, Stewart started on the pole. But he couldn’t hold the lead for a single lap (he was promptly passed by Gordon, who started in second) because his car was too loose for his liking. On Lap 16, when Patrick Carpentier hit the wall and brought out the day’s first caution, Stewart was one of the only drivers to pull onto pit road for early adjustments to tighten up and take on four tires.
“We just weren’t tight enough at the beginning,’’ Stewart said. “We needed to take that early opportunity to come in and make an adjustment.’’
The changes worked. Stewart went on to lead 40 laps, third-most behind Jimmie Johnson (93) and Gordon (64). As pleased as Stewart was with his car’s outcome, he was just as happy to see his old No. 20 team and good friend Greg Zipadelli earn yesterday’s win. Stewart raced with Zipadelli under the
Stewart congratulated Zipadelli and Joey Logano on the win.
“I’m happy for Zippy, Joey, and all the guys on the team,’’ Stewart said. “You take them any way you can get them. That’s as much a strategy as shocks and springs and everything else. They still had to work to get themselves in that position. So they did a good job.’’
As Newman coasted onto pit road, crew chief Tony Gibson called for two tires and a quick splash-and-go in hopes of getting the Chevrolet back onto the track. But after his stop, Newman couldn’t refire the engine. His crew pushed the car for several feet and believed the engine had come back to life. But the No. 39 still wouldn’t crank, forcing the crew members, who had turned around and started back for their stall, to chase after the car and continue pushing it down pit road. Newman finished three laps down in 29th place. He is now seventh in the standings.
“Bottom line is that we didn’t have the fuel mileage on that last run,’’ Newman said. “We ran out of fuel and lost a couple of laps on pit road. It was unfortunate. We had planned on doing two tires and at least getting some track position back. It just didn’t work.’’
Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com. 
