What is Stewart’s team doing with Fuel injection?
Stewart avenged last year's mistake here, once again dominating Sunday's Las Vegas Kobalt 400 but this time pulling out the victory.
Johnson made a late desperate charge on the final restart with four laps to go in the 3-1/2-hour race, but he couldn't catch Stewart, who was lightning fast on restarts throughout the warm, sunny afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
That made it a one-two finish for Rick Hendrick-powered drivers.
Jack Roush's threesome – Biffle, Kenseth and Edwards – was right behind the two, but the three Ford men got to battling among themselves as Stewart and Johnson took flight.
The win was Stewart's first here, leaving him winless at only Darlington and Kentucky.
And the win was Stewart's first with new crew chief Steve Addington.
Stewart, as he was last year, was untouchable. So most of the race the field was well spread out.
But in the final 30 miles things tightened up. And late cautions gave Johnson several shots at catching Stewart on the restarts.
However Stewart was stunning on restarts….so much so that rivals are insisting on looking at the data charts from his engine computer.
"Jimmie is a class act," Stewart said. "He came down to victory lane afterwards to shake my hand. He's either the first one to send you a text message 'Congrats,' or he comes down to victory lane and tells you 'Good job.'
"That's pretty cool. He was giving me a lot of praise for my restarts…."
Well, up to a point.
"After what all we've been through this weekend, we'll take second….but, man, I want to win," Johnson said, somewhat exasperated. He came into the race already 69 points behind the leader, and he leaves this place still 64 down.
Those restarts? Johnson was side-by-side with Stewart.
"The second restart I just blew it," Johnson said of the end-game. "But the first restart I thought was pretty good….and Tony still pulled away."
"Hands down we were faster than anyone from the start line down into turn one," Stewart said.
"But with all those late restarts you have to worry…."
Stewart complained that Johnson was laying back on the restarts, a charge that Stewart frequently makes.
Johnson curtly dismissed that complaint: "I don't know about laying back, it's his prerogative to go whatever he wants.
"But it would be foolish for me to be tire-to-tire with him (for the green).
"Nothing out of the ordinary there."
In fact Johnson raised his own questions, about Stewart's engine setup (though both come out of the Hendrick shop).
Johnson said the new electronic fuel injection systems being used this season for the first time on the Sprint Cup tour have made a difference in how well drivers can restart. And Johnson says he'll be taking a very close look at the computer data from Stewart's car this week, to see just that Stewart was able to do.
"Yep, and I've already asked for it," Johnson said with a laugh.
"It's got to be a two-way street; he's been looking at our stuff for years."
But it may take a bit of wrestling to get that data, Stewart says, with a curt "No."
Ironically at Phoenix Stewart had major problems with his engine EFI, his engine stalling late in the race.
And now everyone wants to see what he's doing.
"I can promised you our Hendrick teammates will get the information," Stewart says.
But NASCAR is mulling over possibly releasing the engine computer data of the top five finishers this season, as teams struggle with the new EFI systems.
Stewart says NASCAR shouldn't be releasing that data: "NASCAR has its guidelines about the (engine) parameters we're supposed to stay in, and as long as we stay in those, I don't know that we should be giving all the information away.
"There's still the part of the creativity and guys doing their homework. And the Hendrick guys have done a great job. Those guys should be very proud of what they've done; they worked very hard this year to get this thing ready. And I don't think it's fair just to give away all that information. I don't think it's right to do that." MikeMulhern.net