WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (AP) - Tony Stewart seems to be right on schedule - it's hot, and so is the driver known as Smoke.
Stewart, who typically thrives in the heat of summer, has three straight top-10 finishes, including a runner-up last week at Pocono, and sits a solid eighth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings as the series heads to Watkins Glen International.
Stewart might not be as hot as he has been in years past at this juncture of the season, but a strong finish at Watkins Glen is almost a lock. He's won four of the past six races over the 11-turn, 2.45-mile layout, finishing second the two times he didn't win, and has a record five victories at the storied track in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.
"I pinpoint this race," Stewart said. "Every time you win here, it makes it that much easier to come back and be that much more excited about it. That's something that I'm really proud of. It definitely gives me an advantage when we come here, at least in my mind.
"I know how to win here. There's no guarantee that it's going to happen again this time around, but it definitely is one of the races on the schedule that we've got circled."
Stewart's second year as an owner-driver has been solid but a bit off his impressive first year. In 2009, he won four times and led the points standings by a wide margin after 26 races before Jimmie Johnson stormed back in the Chase to capture his fourth straight Cup title.
"I guess it is easier, a little bit," Stewart said. "Last year, being the first year, especially the first half of the season, there were a lot of question marks - what to do and how to do this and that. At least going to Daytona it was a lot calmer than it was last year. We just have that experience after the first year. It doesn't mean you know everything you need to know, but at least you have an idea where your program is."
Although Stewart has yet to win this year, he's 189 points ahead of 13th-place Mark Martin in the standings, a comfortable cushion as the regular season winds down. Only five races remain before the 10-race Chase begins, with only the top 12 drivers qualifying.
"We're in a position right now where I can't say we're truly comfortable where we're at, but as long as we don't have a major catastrophe we should be OK," Stewart said. "I wish you could tell me it (a win at Watkins Glen) was a guarantee versus an opportunity. But it is nice knowing that it is a place where, if nothing else, we can maintain."
Stewart has seven road course victories, just two behind all-time NASCAR leader Jeff Gordon, a four-time winner at The Glen. Last August, Stewart led 34 laps of the 90-lap race, which was delayed a day because of rain, and held off Marcos Ambrose over the final 25 laps.
Ambrose, still winless at the Cup level, is poised to complete that breakthrough triumph. The affable Aussie squandered a victory in the road race at Sonoma in June when he shut off his car to save fuel while leading under a late caution and couldn't get it refired in time to keep pace. He was relegated to seventh by NASCAR when the race restarted and finished sixth.
"I've got unfinished business at this level of racing," said Ambrose, who announced last week he won't drive the No. 47 car for JTG-Daugherty Racing in 2011 and has contemplated returning to Australia. "I feel like I've become part of the sport, but I haven't become a contender on a weekly basis. If I left now, I would feel like I've got unfinished business."
Watkins Glen might be the place where Ambrose finally takes care of business. He's won the past two Nationwide races here, completing a daring pass of Kyle Busch for the lead in the closing laps last year, and he finished third in the Cup race two years ago after starting last.
"He's been so close. He's chomping at the bit," Stewart said. "We've actually become better friends over the last year and, trust me, he has got the desire. He's one of those guys I don't really want to see next to me on a restart."
Most of the drivers will see a somewhat different track this year. Bad crashes in each of the past two Cup races at The Glen prompted the largest improvement project at the track in five years. SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barriers have been installed in the area of the chicane, or inner loop, and final turn, guard rails have been moved back in turn 9, gravel areas have been paved in an effort to reduce cautions, and sand barrels have replaced the tire barriers that contributed to last year's violent crash involving Kasey Kahne, Sam Hornish Jr. and Gordon, among others.
"We're always aggressive when we're here," Gordon said. "You'll be able to see some guys do a little more outbraking just because they know what the risk versus reward is. They have an area out there to run off into. They're not going to get stuck."
Gordon, Ambrose and Jeff Burton already have made laps with the new safety features in place, taking part in a Goodyear tire test in June.
For Gordon, who hasn't won at Watkins Glen since 2001, that might prove invaluable - if he races. His second child, a boy, is due any day, and Rolex Series driver Scott Pruett is standing by in case Gordon has to leave.
"Any laps that you can make on a track that we race on is going to help you," said Gordon, who still laments the mistake he made three years ago while leading with two laps remaining, handing Stewart a victory. "We have a lot of important data. That's how we tune the cars a lot these days because we have such a limited amount of testing. That raw data is crucial."
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
