Stewart Hardly Feeling Pressure

NASCAR’s top series is back at work here after a welcome week off, but the pressure keeps building with only six races left to decide which 10 drivers make the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

Many in NASCAR consider the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, held at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the second most important race on the calendar behind the season-opening Daytona 500.

Sunday’s 400-mile race on Indy’s 2.5-mile oval has added importance for the drivers trying to make the chase, in which the 10 contenders will decide the series championship over the last 10 races of the season.

They include Tony Stewart, who won the race and the Cup in 2005 for Joe Gibbs Racing but is barely in this year’s chase. He’s currently 10th in the points.

Even so, Stewart said last year’s victory -- which was an emotional win for the Indiana native -- made him more relaxed coming into this year’s race.

“At the end of the day, no matter whether we win, lose, draw, when I go home Sunday night I still got my trophy there from last year’s win,” Stewart told reporters this week. “I know it’s going to make it a lot more fun this weekend.”

The drivers just behind Stewart in the points are feeling the most pressure to finish well and climb into the top 10 for a shot at the chase. They include Dale Earnhardt Jr., who’s 11th in points, followed by Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards.

“There is no margin for error” for the next six races, Biffle said. Referring to his Roush Racing team of Fords, he said, “I feel like we’re a little bit behind as a company. Not a lot, but a little.”

Even his teammate Matt Kenseth, second in points behind series leader Jimmie Johnson, said, “I don’t think you’re really in [the Chase] yet. You can still fall out in a hurry if you have big problems.”

Just ask Earnhardt. He was third in the points only three weeks ago, but consecutive last-place finishes at New Hampshire and Pocono knocked him out of the top 10.

Stewart also came close to that fate at the Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania.

Early in the race, his No. 20 Chevrolet started a wreck with Clint Bowyer that then collected Edwards. NASCAR penalized Stewart one lap for aggressive driving, but Stewart scrambled back to finish seventh.

Edwards was furious with Stewart, who has chided other drivers this year for racing too aggressively. Stewart later apologized and said the wreck “was totally my fault.”

At Indy, though, everyone first has to get past Jeff Gordon.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver holds several Brickyard records, including most wins (four), most laps led (433) and most top-five finishes (seven). Yet he’ll still have plenty of incentive Sunday because he’s only ninth in the points, just ahead of Stewart.

Gordon, who turns 35 today, was born in Vallejo, Calif., but raised in Indiana. “I think that Indy is more of a personal thing for me because I grew up as a kid watching the Indy 500 and going to that race,” he said.

“Growing up in this area, there’s just something about this place,” Gordon said. “The Brickyard is a big, big event for me.”

Practice for the race is today and qualifying is Saturday.

Talladega Nights

The Will Ferrell comedy “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” which opens tonight, has irked some racing writers who complained that it reinforces the “redneck” stereotype of stock-car racing and generally mocks people from the South.

That’s debatable, based on the movie’s premiere last week in Hollywood. While the film portrays Ferrell, his friends and crew in that fashion, it didn’t appear to generally mock NASCAR officials or its legion of fans who now stretch coast to coast.

In fact, the movie had NASCAR’s cooperation, and the film is peppered with scenes no doubt intended to elevate the sport further and to emphasize its national popularity.

It features tracks in different parts of the country -- all conspicuously identified -- including California Speedway in Fontana. Earnhardt, the sport’s most popular driver, makes a cameo appearance, and there are numerous shots showing actual footage of packed grandstands spliced into the film.

But there is one stereotype that the movie might reinforce: That many fans like NASCAR because of the crashes. The film’s makers devised some nasty wrecks in “Talladega Nights,” though all within the context of the movie’s lighthearted nature.

Last Laps

* Dale Jarrett is scheduled to make his 400th consecutive Cup start here Sunday.

* Shav Glick, longtime motor sportswriter for The Times who retired in January, and veteran sportswriter Jim Short, who recently retired from the Riverside Press-Enterprise, will be honored Saturday night at Perris Auto Speedway in Riverside County.

* The Indy Racing League and the Champ Car World Series are both off this week.

* Irwindale Speedway has a five-race program scheduled for Saturday night, including late-model cars and a figure-8 race featuring TV personality Jesse James.

* Costa Mesa Speedway will serve as host for the first round of the AMA U.S. National Championship motorcycle races Saturday night.