Stewart: Talladega has more variables.

In the fall of 2002, Tony Stewart left Talladega Superspeedway as the NASCAR Winston Cup Series point leader. He came into the fourth and final restrictor plate race of the season trailing series leader Jimmie Johnson by 36 points, but thanks to a strong second-place finish to Dale Earnhardt Jr., Stewart left the EA Sports 500 with a 72-point advantage that no one was able to overcome.

Two years later, Stewart enters the fall Talladega race ninth in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series championship point standings, 135 markers behind new series leader Jeff Gordon. Much has changed since the 2002 EA SPORTS 500 at the 2.66-mile oval, but one element that has not is The Home Depot Racing driver's resolve.

In his 11 previous races at Talladega, Stewart has finished in the top-five six times, three of which were second-place finishes. Stewart has won a points-paying race on nearly every type of race track the circuit offers - short tracks, intermediate tracks, road courses - but never on a restrictor plate track.

"I'm not sure I'd call ourselves a favourite, but I think all you have to do is look at our record and you can probably tell where we're going to be," he said. "We're pretty consistent about where we end up at Talladega."

Talladega has proven to be Stewart's better restrictor plate venue when compared to Daytona, the only other restrictor plate track on the circuit, as it has yielded only one second-place result and two other top-fives.

"You can run two- and three-wide all day at Daytona," he commented. "At Talladega you can run three-wide all day easily, and sometimes four-wide. Essentially, Talladega just has an extra lane compared to Daytona, because its track is a little easier to get a hold of mechanically. Handling isn't near as big of an issue as it is at Daytona. Talladega is just about speed, and finding more of it."

With just eight races remaining in this year's Chase for the Championship, winning is all that matters. That's especially true for Stewart, who knows that wins are the only way to earn the points necessary to compete for this year's title.

"My philosophy in my 25 years of racing has been that if you win races then the points take care of themselves," said Stewart. "The higher you finish the more points you get. It's a pretty simple theory."

For Stewart's #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Home Depot sponsored team, Talladega represents more than just a race. It represents another opportunity to win.

"The race just carries more variables that are out of your control than any other race," warned Stewart. "When they have crashes at Talladega, the number of people caught up is normally pretty large. That's kind of why we view Talladega as a wild card race. You can't really predict anything. It's not as easy as saying, 'These guys run well here.' Guys who don't run well at Talladega could be contenders to win the race if the right circumstances happen. It's one of those scenarios where the guys in the top-10 are really going to be careful, but they're still going to have to race hard to gain as many points as they can."