INDIANAPOLIS — As a track owner, he flawlessly delivered the most heavily anticipated and positively reviewed NASCAR event in years. As a team owner, he exuberantly celebrated a pole position and victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that signified Stewart-Haas Racing's ongoing turnaround in the Sprint Cup Series.
Tony Stewart seems to have an impressive handle on the managerial side of auto racing as an emerging icon in all facets of the game.
Does he really need to keep that distracting driving gig?
"Take that mic away," the three-time Sprint Cup champion playfully chided a news reporter with a smile after placing fourth. "You don't deserve to have that. I'll climb over this counter. ... and beat your (butt). That's the worst question I've heard all week."
Stewart was kidding (sort of), and he will be in overdrive again this week with a harried itinerary that will put him behind the wheel in an extracurricular series or testing his Cup car every day except Wednesday.
But he also was in a reflective mood after teammate Ryan Newman became the third to win the Samuel Deeds 400 at the Brickyard from the pole position.
"I don't know you could ask for a better week," Stewart said.
It started with the Camping World Truck Series' debut at his Eldora Speedway. NASCAR's first dirt race in a national series in nearly 43 years drew universal acclaim and was the talk of the weekend, prompting peers such as Dale Earnhardt Jr., Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon to speculate on the possibility of bringing stock cars to the half-mile oval in tiny Rossburg, Ohio.
ANALYSIS: NASCAR should learn lessons of Eldora
It continued with a strong qualifying session Saturday (Stewart was fifth, and Newman's 50th career pole came on a track-record lap at 187.531 mph).
And it was crowned by Newman's victory, which Stewart claimed meant just as much as if he'd driven the winning Chevrolet on Sunday.
"It doesn't feel different; I'm ecstatic," he said. "Ryan is such a good friend. I didn't think it would feel this good as an owner. Because it's Ryan and a good friend of mine, that's the gratifying part."
And of course, so is the Brickyard, the 2.5-mile oval that alternately has been the site of torment and triumph for the Columbus, Ind., native. Stewart dreamed for years of winning the Indianapolis 500 but was winless in five tries. The agony continued when he moved to NASCAR's premier series, as it took seven tries to reach victory lane for the first of two times.
PHOTOS: 19 years of Brickyard champions
Yet every moment at his home track is special for Stewart, who still talks wistfully about watching Indy 500 practice daily as a kid.
"Used to be the whole month of May you'd get done with school at 3:30 and you got on your bike and rode as fast as you could to get home and turn on your TV to watch," he said. "It's a dream. We know the history of this place. We understand, we appreciate the history of this sport, the great drivers and teams that have raced and won here. That's a big deal to us being from here."
Nearly as important is the continued improvement of his team, which notched two top-fives in a race for the second time this season (and first since last month at Pocono Raceway).
Stewart, fourth Sunday, jumped two spots in the standings to 11th (a point behind 10th-ranked Jeff Gordon) and holds the top wild-card seed for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. The other wild card is held by Martin Truex Jr., but Newman would be next in line by virtue of his Indy win.
STANDINGS: Updated Sprint Cup points
Though Danica Patrick (26th in points after a 30th in her Cup debut at the Brickyard) has struggled, Stewart is encouraged by the team's progress since the slowest start of his career.
"It's been frustrating," he said. "It's frustrating knowing there's teams we outperform week in and week out that we were getting beat by. But there isn't anybody that has backed into a win here at Indy. It's the guys that have the fastest car. For Ryan to get the pole yesterday, for us to win, for us to qualify fifth and run fourth today, that's a big deal for our organization. Our other teammate just keeps knocking on the door. She's gaining confidence and experience. That's a fun part to watch, too. For all three of us, I think we're gaining on that, and we're proud of that."
Follow Nate Ryan on Twitter @nateryan
PHOTOS: Tony Stewart through the years
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