Stewart could interfere with Chase again

As the Chase for the Nextel Cup moves west for its next-to-last race, there’s every reason to believe Tony Stewart could again be a spoiler.

Stewart not only is red hot with victories in three of the last six races -- including the last two in Texas and Atlanta -- he’s also a perennial favorite at Phoenix International Raceway, site of Sunday’s Checker Auto Parts 500.

The defending Cup champion, who missed this year’s Chase by only 16 points, has raced six types of cars at the one-mile Phoenix oval during his driving career. That includes a Cup win in his NASCAR rookie year, 1999.

Stewart also demonstrated his Phoenix prowess at the track’s spring Cup race in April. After starting last on the 43-car grid, thanks to a pre-race penalty, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver clawed through the pack to finish second in his Home Depot Chevrolet.

“I do feel like it’s my West Coast home away from home,” said Stewart, who lives in Indiana. “I know every inch of that racetrack.”

But so does Kevin Harvick, another Chevy driver, who beat Stewart in the spring race here and is one of the 10 drivers in the Chase.

Another victory in the desert might keep the Bakersfield native within striking distance of the Nextel Cup championship when the series reaches its climax Nov. 19 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida.

Harvick, who drives for Richard Childress Racing, is fifth in the standings, 105 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson, still another Chevy driver.

“You could be 100 points ahead and go to Homestead and break an engine and lose the championship,” said Ford driver Matt Kenseth, who trails Johnson by only 17 points in second place. “You don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Kenseth, the 2003 Cup champion and a member of the Roush Racing stable, also could leave Phoenix with the Chase lead. He won here in 2002 and finished third in the spring race.

In the 10-race Chase, NASCAR’s version of a late-season playoff, the 10 drivers who finished highest in points after the first 26 of the series’ 36 races race for the Nextel Cup.

With eight Chase races behind them, Johnson and Kenseth lead the pack, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. third, 78 points behind; rookie Denny Hamlin fourth, 80 points behind, and then Harvick. Only those top five are thought to have a realistic shot at the title.

Earnhardt is one of only three Cup drivers to have won twice at Phoenix, along with Jeff Burton and the late Davey Allison. Burton is another Chase contender who started strong in the playoff but finished 38th last week in Texas and is now seventh, 184 points behind Johnson.

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Sam Hornish Jr., another open-wheel racing star testing NASCAR’s waters, will attempt to qualify Saturday for a Busch Series race here.

Hornish -- winner of this year’s Indianapolis 500 and the Indy Racing League’s IndyCar Series title, his third, for Penske Racing -- will try to qualify a Penske Dodge stock car for the Arizona.Travel 200 to be run later that day.

If he does, he will join Juan Pablo Montoya, another Indy 500 winner and Formula One driver who has permanently moved to NASCAR for the team of Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates.

Hornish won Indy car races here in 2001 and 2005 and has said he planned to stay in the IRL at least through 2007.

james.peltz@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The Chase

NASCAR Nextel Cup standings with two races remaining:

*--* Driver Points Behind 1. Jimmie Johnson 6,157 -- 2. Matt Kenseth 6,140 17 3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 6,079 78 4. Denny Hamlin 6,077 80 5. Kevin Harvick 6,052 105

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*--* 6. Jeff Gordon 6,000 157 7. Jeff Burton 5,973 184 8. Kyle Busch 5,924 233 9. Mark Martin 5,904 253 10. Kasey Kahne 5,867 290

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REMAINING SCHEDULE

* Sunday: Checker Auto Parts 500, Phoenix

* Nov. 19: Ford 400 (Miami)