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Photo Galleries... Stewart wins second title Truex wins back-to-back titles Also... | | Standings Pilot injured in helicopter collision Johnson's hopes end with crash Gordon claims coveted 11th spot Stewart Q&A | Zipadelli Q&A TonyStewart.com Riding with Junior: Homestead Analysis... McReynolds: Mears closes in on win Byrnes: Biffle battles for sixth win

Tony Stewart: Yeah, it was not — by any means — a perfect night. I set us back on Friday when I spun the car in practice, and we never could get a happy middle to the balance. We were either too free or too tight, and knowing what we know now if I could go back and work on the setups, we could go back and work on it and get it a lot closer to where we could run in the top 10 easily tonight. But we did what we needed to do. Got lucky and stayed on the lead lap. And even if we didn't stay on the lead lap, we could have got it done, I believe.

John Roberts: Clearly a dream season for Tony.

Jimmy Spencer: Tony, we heard you say on NBC that this is a special championship, moreso than the first one. And you also said there was something different between the way your attitude and stuff was vs. your attitude this year. Explain that to again to us.

Tony Stewart: The longer you're here, the more you (learn). Rusty Wallace said it best (Sunday) in the drivers' meeting, saying how much of a privilege it is to be in this series. And you take it for granted. I've been a part of a lot of racing series, and sometimes, you forget about that side of it. You forget that it is a privilege to be here. This series will go on whether you're here or I'm here or anybody's here. We're just one piece of the puzzle. To think about all the turmoil that I put our race team in in 2002, I was so stressed out about everything all the time that I lost sight of the big picture. And I just created so much havoc. It's like a boat in the water. You create such a wake and so much turmoil that you don't realize what's going on behind you and how many people it affects. At the end of last year when our race team sat down together without Zippy — this was a meeting that wasn't with Zippy involved — it was these guys telling me this is what you do to us. It was one of those meetings that we needed to have and a heart-to-heart with my guys. And to be able to win this one for Zippy... Zippy told me in 2002, he goes, "I would give away this championship to get you to where you're happy so luckily we didn't have to give that one away, but even moreso, it's even a bigger honor this year to get him a championship in a year where our race team was one unit. We weren't all torn apart and surrounded by controversy and turmoil this year that I created in 2002. We had a fun year this year. Everybody has seen how much fun we've had, and to be able to celebrate tonight with these guys, those are the same guys that we've been wrestling with all weekend, pinching and punching and having fun with. Just joking around and having a good time. This is what it's going to be all about tonight. This whole season is going to come down to tonight for me and being able to celebrate with these guys.

Tony Stewart climbs the fence after finishing 15th to win the title by 35 points over Greg Biffle, who won the Ford 400 for the second consecutive year. TonyStewart.com (Joe Cavaretta / Associated Press)

Kenny Wallace: You deserve the championship, and I know, this year, you're going to work your butt off and show everybody how much this championship means to you. But as the race wound on, could you have done better than 15th or were you protecting your position?

Tony Stewart: Really (I) was just trying to protect at that point. The thing that I noticed is that if I ran hard on the front, the front end... We just never got the front end turning in the center of the corner off and all day, we just kept making adjustments and working on it. But we knew we were safer on the tight side than we were like we were Friday when I spun on Friday all of the sudden. So it was just a matter of trying to keep the car freed up. But if I overdrove the car early in the run, when it did give up, it was giving up really hard and really fast.

Kenny Wallace: Were you driving a push off the corner all night to stay on the safe side?

Tony Stewart: Yeah, right there. There's a seam right there in the middle of the corner there. Basically what I was doing was just splitting the seam, and it seemed like it would help the car turn. It was taking wedge out of the car. That's an old sprint car trick I'm pulling from way back so. Just doing everything that you know to do to help the car turn. But if you overdrove it on the front run. If I just I just give up a tenth (of a second) or two-tenths on the front run, I could make it last a lot longer, later in the run. That's where guys were really catching me. I could pass two or three guys in the front of the run. When the tires would give up, I would lose those three spots back again and then guys from behind would come up and get by too. So I was just trying to protect it on the front to make it last longer throughout the run.

Jimmy Spencer: Tony, we know you have a long-term agreement with Joe Gibbs Racing. What do you think of the competitors that are going to start to raid your team? What do you feel about that?

Tony Stewart: Raid my team? They don't want to mess with me and taking my guys or thinking about taking my guys.

Kenny Wallace: He's like A.J. Foyt. He's even got a belly now. He'll knock you out.

Tony Stewart: That's why you're on the other end of the table.

Kenny Wallace: You're darn right. Hey, I know you, buddy.

Jimmy Spencer: What I'm getting at is that I know the type of person you are and I love you as the competitor that you are. But what I'm saying is and I see you with all the guys. The closeness you guys have, do you think that they will try to challenge? You guys really were strong this year.

Tony Stewart: I think you're talking about guys going to other teams and this and that. I don't think you'll see that happen. We've all worked so hard. When you join an organization like Joe Gibbs Racing, you look at how many drivers Joe has had in 13 or 14 years since Dale Jarrett. He doesn't have a high turnover rate. That man right there, Greg Zipadelli, that's like my older brother that I never had. I can't think of driving for anybody but him. I just think we're such a strong bond as a team. If something every happened, it would be a big shock to everybody because I just don't see that happening. I think everybody is so happy working for Joe and understanding how hard he's worked to get us all in this position to where we can win races and championships to where I just think everybody... We've been a stronger team this year than we've ever been. Pretty much the same core group of guys that started here in '99 are still here so I know for a fact that as far as Cup teams go, we have the lowest turnover rate of employees of any Cup team out there. So that's something that I'm proud of from Joe's standpoint so I've got to climb a fence tonight or I'm going to get killed out here.

Ordinal out of range John Roberts: What a dream season you've had with success early. You've got the restrictor plate win at Daytona and the win at Indy. You couldn't probably script a better season, could you?

Tony Stewart: With the Brickyard win and being able to get this championship done and then do what we did, I can't think of any better way to put an icing on the cake other than winning this championship.

John Roberts: And then climbing the fence.

Jimmy Spencer: You can't climb that fence because they don't have the big things on the outside. Don't even take a chance.

Tony Stewart: Let me explain to you one thing Spencer. The difference about me vs. some of these guys: when they ask for it, I give it to them so when I'm done here, I'm going to climb up there with the rest of them guys on the flagstand.