It's been a matter of staying out of other people's problems. Stewart's crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, says never mind all that. Just give him the fourth-place finish at Bristol and he'd be happy. If the answer is yes, then maybe you can sleep that night. We're all paid to perform.
Excuses are easy.
We just need to keep digging. In performance matters, then Stewart's team should be in attack mode the next several races. First comes Charlotte, where he might have won two years ago if he hadn't been physically whipped by running Indy earlier in the day, which brings up another subject. Then it's Dover, where he won both races last year, and Michigan, where he won the June race in 2000, and Pocono, where he also runs well and sat on the pole in July. It just seems like this is the part of the season where we get going.