By JEFF GOLDBERG
Tony Stewart is once again on the pole.
By winning the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard in Indianapolis on Sunday, Stewart did more than fulfill a lifelong dream. The bad boy of NASCAR won for the fourth time in six races and vaulted over Jimmie Johnson for the Nextel Cup points lead.
Stewart, who has not led in the standings since winning the Cup in 2002, has finished in the top 10 seven straight races.
Stewart's path to first place was cleared when points leader Johnson crashed and settled for a 38th-place finish. But Stewart had more than the Cup on his mind Sunday. The Indiana native had never won at the Brickyard in 11 tries, earning some of his negative image in the wake of those losses. But despite a late charge by rookie Kasey Kahne, Stewart held on for victory, and he bent down and kissed the bricks when it was over.
The Nextel Cup is hardly the only race heating up in early August. Baseball has just eight weeks to go, and thanks to a Mazzilli-killing 9-28 stretch by the Orioles, the Red Sox and Yankees are alone to battle out the American League East.
The Red Sox maintain the upper hand with a 3 1/2-game lead, but against the Twins they hardly looked like the team that won eight straight. There were errors galore, physical and mental, and only the dome-friendly knuckleball of Tim Wakefield prevented a sweep.
The Yankees' pitching continues to wobble on the brink of disaster, and the team had to deflect the latest Sheff being Sheff controversy in New York magazine.
But with Gary Sheffield responding with two home runs in Toronto and four of the first five hitters in the lineup hitting over .300 for the season, the Yankees have stayed afloat.
Then there are the two wild card races, which show 15 teams from both leagues within 7 1/2 games of the lead. The AL is less of a race, with Oakland continuing to win to forge a tie with Anaheim for the AL West lead, while leaving the Yankees four back in the wild card. The National League is much tighter, with the Mets among seven teams within six games of Houston.
Even the minor leagues had a major series this weekend. The Rock Cats were looking to make a race of the Eastern League's Northern Division, hosting second-place Trenton for three games over the weekend.
But after a 10-2 stretch brought the Cats back into contention, they dropped five of seven this week, including 2 of 3 to Trenton to fall five games behind the Thunder for the final playoff berth.
And things don't get easier with division-leading Portland in town starting tonight.
Things won't get any easier for Stewart with 15 Nextel races to go. And it's hard to imagine it getting any sweeter than Sunday.
"I wish I could put it into words," Stewart said. "It's been my entire life."
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