NASCAR: The 14 Greatest Moments Of Tony Stewart’s Career

11. Pocono, June 2009

Before forming Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009 with Gene Haas, a lot of pundits believed that Stewart leaving Joe Gibbs Racing, where he took the No. 20 to two championships, was a bad idea. Essentially, Stewart was leaving an established team for an unproven one, as none of the Haas-CNC cars ever had success in Cup. Still, the allure of ownership proved too strong for Stewart, and in 2009 he switched to the No. 14.

He went winless throughout the first half of the season, but when the Cup guys reached Pocono in June, Stewart finally broke through as a winning owner/driver as he scored the pole, led 39 laps, and won the race. Doing this, he showed everyone else that he could be successful his way.