Tony Stewart

If you think getting to the top of the mountain is hard? Staying there is even harder, despite how easy Jimmie Johnson made it look. After winning an epic championship in 2011, Tony Stewart could only muster a ninth place finish for an encore in 2012. "It's hard to keep that intensity up coming off a Championship is hard," said Stewart. "Especially in an industry like this where technology is constantly changing. I's a big focus for us to keep pushing our guys to make what we have better.

Tony Stewart made it 2 for 2 in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, pulling ahead when Clint Bowyer ran of gas with two laps left to win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday. Stewart is on a roll when it matters most, following last week's Chase opening victory with another strong performance at New Hampshire. Both of his victories this season have come in the Chase and have propelled him to the top of the points standings. The outcome was a complete reversal of last fall's race at New Hampshire.

Winless no more. Poor-mouthing Tony Stewart, who four days ago minimized his chances for a third Sprint Cup title, outlasted the field in Monday's rain-delayed Geico 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. Saving fuel during a 50-lap green-flag run to the finish, Stewart, who started 26th, crossed the stripe .941 seconds ahead of hard-charging Kevin Harvick to win his first race of the season and the 40th of his career, tying him with Mark Martin for 16th on the all-time list. This is the same Stewart who had said at Thursday's Chase media day in Chicago that there were seven drivers who could win the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup - and he wasn't one of them.

The thing about Tony Stewart is, one would never call him shy. He calls them like he sees them. Some of his rants are funny, some are petty, some right on the spot, some are way off base. But that is Tony Stewart. Love it, hate it you always know what's coming. His unpredictability, to strangely predictable. That being said, no one could have seen this coming. I mean, Tony Stewart has had the reputation of being strong late in the summer and into the fall. But he really hasn't shown a lot of that recently.

As NASCAR moves to the Granite State, the talk should be about the Chase, who might be a title contender and the other things that are fodder during the dog days of summer. But instead, the only thing anyone is talking about outside the NASCAR inner circle, is the positive drug test of AJ Allmendinger. "That is not in A.J. Allmendinger's character so I don't know what is going on there," Daytona winner Tony Stewart told the media in New Hampshire. "It's unfortunate because he's a good guy and he's a really good race car driver so I mean I would say there is probably a logical explanation for it. " The real reason many drivers, media and fans are looking for a logical explanation, and were so surprised, is because when drivers go 500 miles at around 200 mph, everyone takes for granted that the guy in the next car is sober when they do it. "I think the drug testing policy is a great thing," Matt Kenseth told NASCAR.com.

Kurt Busch has won the first road course race of his career with a dominating performance at Infineon Raceway. Busch led a race-high 75 laps and beat Jeff Gordon by almost 4 seconds for his first victory of the season. It marked a total turnaround for Busch and his Penske Racing team, which struggled mightily last month and made behind-the-scenes personnel changes to adapt. Carl Edwards finished third Sunday, followed by Clint Bowyer and Marcos Ambrose. The race featured several on-track flare-ups, most notably Brian Vickers' payback spin of Tony Stewart.

As NASCAR fans, we are just different than fans of other sports. Spoiled I say. The sport is pretty much a year around affair. And for the short time that is gone, we go through some major withdrawals. And lets be honest, anyone that would dedicate 4 hours ever Sunday from February to November must have a major addiction. So it probably comes as no surprise to you that I found myself squinting at my i-Phone, watching the cars go around the track for Day One of the pre-season test at Daytona know as "Pre-season Thunder.

In case you haven't noticed, the NASCAR police has been very busy over the last week or so. From Penske to Gibbs, names that have not normally been in the spotlight are getting busted too. So is NASCAR being unusually harsh on teams? "We've got the rules in play," said NASCAR VP of Competion Robin Pemberton. "They're put there a lot of times by NASCAR, but with input from the teams, manufacturers and outside experts, and it's our job to manage those rules and manage that rule book as it relates to the garage area.