Racebeat (10/13/03)
by Rich Romer

NASCAR Winston Cup: Tony Stewart put a positive stamp on what's been a disappointing reign as Winston Cup champion by winning the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Stewart had the most dominant car all night but still had to run down Ryan Newman over the final stretch to score just his second win of the season. Newman,

the pole-sitter and hottest driver in the series with eight victories this year, made an early pit stop to search for a vibration on the No. 12 Dodge. When the rest of the field had to make their stops much later, Newman inherited the lead from Stewart. He had an eight-second lead when Stewart got back on the track after his stop, and Stewart had 36 laps to run him down. But with four fresh tires, Stewart was much faster and slowly chipped into Newman's lead.

"I can see him," Stewart radioed. "I'm getting him." Stewart was on Newman's bumper with 10 laps to go, setting up a battle between two former sprint car stars from Indiana. Stewart pulled alongside Newman heading into the first turn with seven laps to go, then passed him for the lead in the second turn.