ESPN Sprint Cup

ESPN.com preseason rank: No. 14

2009 Outlook

The reason Tony Stewart has been picked so low by consensus of our staff is skepticism that he -- or anyone -- can succeed as both a team owner and a full-time driver. But if anybody can in this era, it is Stewart.

He is the 3.3 version of his idle and mentor, A.J. Foyt, who was highly successful as an Indy car owner-driver in the simpler era of the 1970s -- but whose twilight in the dual role came when he couldn't bring himself to delegate as racing teams became more complex.

Stewart has already shown an amazing knack for delegating responsibility and authority in the various companies he owns, especially his dirt-track teams.

If he can apply that to the Sprint Cup level -- and keep himself from fretting about how much it would cost him to wreck a car while he's driving it -- then Smoke could rise a lot higher in the standings than we've forecast here.

2008 Review

Stewart maintained he was never distracted from his Joe Gibbs Racing ride last season even while he was busy acquiring sponsorships for his new team. But his midweek business activities, and his lame-duck status on the No. 20 team, certainly didn't help. Lest we forget, Stewart would have gone winless in '08 if not for a controversial win at Talladega in the fall, when rookie Regan Smith's finish-line pass below the yellow line was disallowed by NASCAR.

He has a shot at the title if: Stewart can ramp up his talent for delegating, and NASCAR's testing ban makes the playing field level for teams both new and old.

He won't win the title because: There are so many glitches inherent in a new team that filling all the holes quickly would take a superhuman effort, especially for an owner-driver.

-- Ed Hinton