Stewart Wants Title to Make Point

<br>LOUDON, N.H. (AP) _ Tony Stewart prefers not to talk about the Winston Cup points race. He just intends to be on top when the season ends in November. <br><br>``Winning races is all we care about,''

Friday, September 13th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LOUDON, N.H. (AP) _ Tony Stewart prefers not to talk about the Winston Cup points race. He just intends to be on top when the season ends in November.

``Winning races is all we care about,'' Stewart said as he began preparations for Sunday's New Hampshire 300. ``If you win races the points will take care of itself.''

Stewart will be trying for his fourth victory this season and his second career win at New Hampshire International Speedway. He hopes to close the gap considerably on series leader Sterling Marlin.

Stewart appeared to be doing that last Saturday night when he was poised for a top-four finish in Richmond, Va. But a rear end gear problem with four laps dropped him to 30th.

He did gain ground on Marlin, who wrecked in the first few laps and wound up last in a field of 43. But Stewart's bad luck cost him 82 points, leaving him fifth in the standings _ 118 behind Marlin.

``There are too many guys and too many variables to even think about point racing,'' Stewart said. ``Everyone has to go out there and try to win as many races as they can.''

He's part of tight title chase in which the top seven drivers are separated by 184 points with 10 of 36 races remaining. It doesn't bother Stewart to be fifth.

``I don't want to be leading the points right now,'' he said. ``I want to be the guy hunting these other guys down.''

Mark Martin will focus more on points, and winning for the first time at New Hampshire. That probably would give him the standings lead.

Martin enters the race with seven top-five finishes on the track and trails Marlin by nine points. Marlin has been on top since the second race of the season, but he has just one finish better than 14th in his last 12 starts in New Hampshire.

``We are going to take the same car that we ran last week in Richmond and it was fantastic,'' Martin said. ``If we can get that again we will be in great shape.''

Martin finished sixth and picked up 125 points on Marlin.

``Anybody who is successful at anything for a long period of time wants to be the best,'' Martin said. ``I want to accomplish whatever the ultimate accomplishment is and that would be a championship.''

Martin has finished second in points three times and been in the top five in nine of the last 12 years.

Marlin figures to be at a disadvantage against four-time series champion Jeff Gordon. An engine problem caused Gordon to finish 40th in Richmond, but he has three victories in New Hampshire and is 92 points back in fourth place.

Track owner Bob Bahre might consider Sunday's race on the mile oval a success if drivers aren't talking about slipping and sliding all over the place.

In July, at the New England 300, NASCAR's best drivers said the disintegrating surface was not race worthy.

Stewart called the track a ``sandbox,'' and Gordon wanted NASCAR to stop the race until conditions improved. Even race winner Ward Burton called it treacherous, but Bahre isn't worried this time.

``We are confident that the track will be fine for the race,'' he said.

NASCAR drivers Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin died at New Hampshire in separate accidents while practicing in 2000. But NASCAR never blamed the track for either crash, and there was less discontent among drivers at that time than two months ago, when spent rubber and uncured top dressing made the asphalt more like a dirt track.

The track underwent changes after a Busch Series event in May. But drivers struggled two months later to get through turns 3 and 4, where a sealer had been applied, and some hit the wall when debris on their tires prohibited normal turning.

``Since the July race, turns 3 and 4 have now have had the same curing time as turns 1 and 2 had in July,'' Bahre said. ``Because of this, we expect turns 3 and 4 to be as good as turns 1 and 2.''