Now that Martin won with new team, is Stewart next?

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- It would have been a good question prior to this Sprint Cup season -- and surely, somewhere it was posed by someone.

Who would be the first to win a race this season between Mark Martin and Tony Stewart?

Stewart-Haas Racing

2009 Finishes

Race	Newman	Stewart
Daytona	36	8
Fontana	28	8
Las Vegas	25	26
Atlanta	22	8
Bristol	7	17
Martinsville	6	3
Texas	15	4
Phoenix	16	2
Rank	17	4

Then again, weren't the odds for that always stacked in Martin's favor? He was driving for venerable Hendrick Motorsports in a No. 5 Chevrolet that virtually everyone agreed was ready to roar under the careful eyes of talented crew chief Alan Gustafson.

And Stewart? He was taking over his own team, rebuilding it from Ground Zero at Stewart-Haas Racing. It was bound to take time to fit all the pieces together, right?

Well, Martin did become the first of the two to win when he captured the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday night. But guess who was right behind him, finishing second?

That's right. Stewart.

"We're just chiseling away," Stewart said afterward. "Man, it's like I can taste it. I know it's coming. We're getting there. ... I'm telling you, we're so close. We're going to get a win here soon."

It was Stewart's third consecutive strong finish -- he was third at Martinsville and fourth at Texas in the previous two races -- and pushed him to fourth in the point standings. He has finished in the top eight in six of the eight Cup races to date. In that sense, his season has been marked by a consistency that has eluded Martin and so many others -- and defied the logic of those who insisted it would take Stewart some time to get up and running in the competitive fast lane.

What about Newman?

As impressive as Stewart's run in Phoenix was, it may not have been the most impressive in the Stewart-Haas stable. With radio communications lost for virtually the entire 312-lap race between Newman and his crew chief, Tony Gibson, the driver somehow hung on to finish 16th. He even led ever so briefly following a caution with 11 laps to go, when he stayed on the track and everyone else pitted.

"We didn't have radio communications the whole night, so we made no adjustments on the car. Nothing went right," a clearly frustrated Newman said immediately after the race. "So under those circumstances, finishing 16th and leading a lap, I guess that was a pretty good day for us. I knew I was a sitting duck at the end, but I had nothing to lose." (Continued)