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By Seth Livingstone, USA TODAY
FORT WORTH — When it became evident that Tony Stewart's hunger for another Nextel Cup could not be satisfied this year, the 2005 champ set out to become leaner and faster.
Talk about success in racing trim, the slimmed-down Stewart has won three of the last six races, including Sunday's Dickies 500 when he left Chase contenders in his wake by leading 278 of 339 laps.
Even with victory celebrations, Stewart says he's lost some 20 pounds since being eliminated from Chase contention at Richmond in September.
"I just wanted to get in better shape," said Stewart, who has cut back on pizza and pasta and hired personal trainer Marc Arnone to travel with him. "I'm sure 80%-90% of people would like to get in better shape. I just got to the point where I said, 'OK, I'm going to do this.' "
And Stewart's competitive juices have kicked in when it comes to battling the bulge.
"It's fun," he said. "Race drivers are competitive by nature.
"Probably the thing I use the most is the rowing machine. It's good for cardio, but at the same time it works your back, your shoulders, your arms and your legs. The first day I went 6,000 meters, then it was 6,300 and then 6,500 and (recently) I went 8,000 meters. It's just neat to push myself and see how far I can go.
"When I see myself progress that way, it's not so much counting inches and pounds, because you can drive yourself nuts doing that — every day you want to jump on the scale. Being able to go out and do something better, go a little bit further, lift a little bit heavier weight than I was a day or two before, that's how I'll judge my progress."
Stewart might want to judge it by his success behind the wheel. No driver has scored more points (1,185) since the Chase began. And no driver looks more fit for a champion's mantel, even if NASCAR's 10-for-the-Cup format precludes Stewart from retaining the crown.
"He's looking great," said Dale Earnhardt Jr., after battling strep throat, dehydration and a scrape with the wall to keep his Cup hopes alive with a sixth-place finish.
"He was too good," said Kasey Kahne, who provided some of Stewart's stiffest competition before his Evernham Motorsports engine gave out. "Even though we were flying, he was still better than we were."
Those close to Stewart can see a commitment from him when it comes to his conditioning. He'd talked about losing weight before. He even purchased some $17,000 worth of exercise equipment last December.
"I think this time he's a little more serious about it," said team president J.D. Gibbs. "I think he went about it the right way. It comes back to having somebody full time with you. It's hard to slack off when you've got somebody right there next to you. You can't hide."
Teammate J.J. Yeley believes that being eliminated from the Chase played a major role.
"Tony's (attitude) always was, 'OK, I may be in bad shape, but I'm still winning championships and winning races. Until that affects me, I'm not going to worry about it,' " Yeley said. "With all the trouble they had this year that they don't generally have — whether it was wrecks, blown engines or whatever — missing the Chase by 16 points was a wake-up call."
Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.
