Tony Stewart

The crew climbed the fence, but the boss didn't. Tony Stewart did that when he won races as just a driver, but perhaps such larks are of days gone by for Stewart the team owner. With a daring pass with two laps to go, Stewart won Saturday night's All-Star Race at Concord, N.C., with his co-owner Gene Haas watching, back for his first race since late 2007 after serving a 16-month sentence for federal tax fraud.

Kyle Busch got out of his smashed up car and went straight toward Victory Lane as he pulled his gloves off. He didn't win the race, but he had a score to settle with the guy who did. Four officials got in his way, grabbed him and forced him toward the infield care center where he was examined and released. Minutes before that, he had tried to make a blocking move to win the Coke Zero 400. He turned his nose in front of Tony Stewart, and Stewart ignored it.

Mark Martin's face retreated into the wide, childlike smile he saves for discussing the things in his life that bring him joy. He was speaking about his friend Tony Stewart. "I'm so proud of him," said Martin, standing in the sunshine of Indianapolis Motor Speedway's Gasoline Alley. "His true colors are really showing now. They're really showing. He's one of the best persons I know in the world. It's really showing this year. I'm proud." That's not a statement often used about Stewart.

Tony Stewart won the rain-delayed NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen International on a steamy Monday, muscling an ill-handling car in the early going and then holding off Australian Marcos Ambrose over the last 21 laps for his Cup-record fifth victory at the road course. "I love it when it gets slick," Stewart said after his 36th Cup win. "There's just something about this place. We've been really good." Stewart has finished first or second in eight of the last 11 Cup road races but had to keep the hard-charging Ambrose at bay. "I was watching him," Stewart said of Ambrose.