BROOKLYN, Mich. - Tony Stewart is too far back in the drivers' standings to pay attention to Matt Kenseth's 176-point lead. The only thing on Stewart's mind is getting through today's Sirius Satellite Radio 400.
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After that, he'll worry about next week's race on the road course at Sonoma, Calif.
"From our standpoint, we have to go out and worry about one race at a time," Stewart said. "I haven't looked at the point sheet for about eight weeks. Don't care. All I care about doing is going out and trying to do what we did last week, and that's winning races."
Kenseth is in full stride in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series standings; everyone else is taking baby steps. No matter what happens to Kenseth today, he knows he will hang onto his lead in the rankings.
The most points anyone can earn today is 185 - 175 for the victory, five points for leading a lap and five points for leading the most laps. The worst Kenseth can do is 34 points for last place. So no matter what happens, Kenseth is guaranteed at least a 25-point lead heading into next week's race.
Stewart took another small step Friday at the Michigan International Speedway by finishing second in qualifying. Bobby Labonte, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon did the same by qualifying among the top six.
Kenseth is 21st on the starting grid.
The middle-third of the 36-race season is regarded as the heart of the Winston Cup Series schedule. It's like Saturday at the Masters Tournament, a day golfers call "moving day." Drivers used to go about the middle-third of the season with the same axiom: You can't win the championship in the current stretch of races; you can only drive yourself out of contention. Kenseth's start, however, has forced many of the other contenders to change their strategies.
Kenseth has the second-largest lead after 14 races since the sport started its modern era in 1974. With 12 top-10 finishes in 14 races, including a stretch of five in a row, Kenseth hasn't shown any weaknesses. That's forced everyone else to start their stretch drives six months before the end of the racing season.
"To me, the No. 1 most important thing the rest of the year is going out and winning races," Stewart said. "Wherever we end up at the end of the year, we end up. It's not like we can do anything different. We're doing the best we can do right now, and what we've got is what we've got.
"I'm not happy with the way the season has gone, but every year there's probably 30 guys that aren't exactly tickled to death with the way their season has gone."
Labonte, who is fourth in the standings, is on the pole for the 200-lap race at the 2-mile, D-shaped track located about 60 miles from downtown Detroit. His Interstate Batteries Chevrolet made a lap of 190.365 mph during time trials to win the top starting spot.
Earnhardt Jr., who is second in the standings, is third in the lineup with a lap of 189.091 mph.
Gordon, who is the third-ranked driver, qualified sixth at 188.541.
Busch is fifth in the standings and fourth at 188.783.
Terry Labonte is fifth at 188.689 mph, followed by Gordon in sixth, Elliott Sadler in seventh at 188.496, Ryan Newman in eighth at 188.294, Michael Waltrip in ninth at 188.191 and Kevin Harvick in 10th at 188.186.
While his qualifying effort of 187.529 mph has him in the middle of the pack, Kenseth isn't worried, even with his four-closest competitors in the rankings starting from the first three rows. After all, he started 20th at the same race a year ago and won.
"That is all right," he said. "Track position is real important. But starting 15th or 20th in a normal Michigan race, it's not hard to overcome. It's a real easy track to pass at. The groove is really wide. It's actually fun to race. We've had some fast cars here, so it's been a good track for us."
Stewart, the defending series champion, already has failed to finish four races this year. He's 13th in the current standings, 540 points behind Kenseth. To catch him, he will need to average a finish of at least six positions ahead of Kenseth in each of the final 22 races.
"It's kind of hard to have it go your way all the time," Stewart said.
But it won't stop him or any of the other top contenders in the point standings
