For Tony Stewart, it’s one track down and two to go.
The three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion entered the 2012 season winless at just three tracks on the current schedule: Darlington Raceway; Kentucky Speedway, which ran its inaugural event in 2011, and Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Scratch Las Vegas; Stewart won there in March leading a race-high 127 laps.

Darlington remains an uphill climb. Stewart owns just three top-five finishes in 19 previous starts. His Driver Rating of 88.1 is 11th best. He finished seventh, however, a year ago.

Stewart remains well ahead of last year’s title pace but his No. 14 Chevrolet team, with Spartanburg, S.C., native Steve Addington handling crew chief duties for the first time, continues to seek consistency. Two victories and a points ranking of seventh make Stewart pretty much a lock for this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™.
“If you can say you won a race at Darlington – that’s a feather in your cap,” said Stewart. “That’s something to be proud of, knowing that you’re in a group of drivers with names like Pearson and Petty – the pioneers of our sport who you hear stories about the races they ran there and the races they won there.”