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MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Tony Stewart is coming closer to scoring his first NASCAR Sprint Cup victory as owner/driver less than two months into the season.

Stewart, in his first year as owner/driver, finished a season-best third Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. Stewart's teammate, Ryan Newman, finished sixth, marking the first time this year both Stewart-Haas Racing cars placed in the top 10.

"You know, it's coming," said Stewart after his fourth top-10 finish in six races. "It just takes time. It's like we say every Monday in our competition meeting. We've just got to build a database first. Once we get that established, then I think the second time around, we're going to be a little better yet."

Newman gained two spots in the final laps to finish sixth, passing Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin late.

"Each race has been better all year long," Newman said. "Hopefully, that's a sign of things to come."

STILL WINLESS: Points leader Jeff Gordon appeared set on ending his career-high 46-race winless steak but after dominating early, he couldn't stay in the lead and finished fourth.

Gordon said not having practice Saturday impacted his team. He said he was loose during Friday's practice and his team made adjustments for that. Problem is, they went too far.

"I just never could really get the car through the middle" of the turn, he said. "We were the third best car.

"If we are going to contend for the championship, especially in those final 10 races, we've got to start winning races. I am not really concerned with this streak of how many wins we haven't had in a row. I am more concerned with what we have to do this year to win races and win this championship."

GETTING BETTER: While car owner Rick Hendrick was thrilled with Jimmie Johnson's victory, he also was pleased with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s eighth-place finish. Since poor finishes at Daytona and California to open the season, Earnhardt has not finished worse than 14th. He climbed three spots to 16th in the points Sunday.

"The 88 team and Dale worked hard," Hendrick said. "They're making some good progress."

Earnhardt, though, couldn't share his boss' feelings.

"We were a pretty good car all day and made some adjustments at the end that weren't helping the car," Earnhardt said. "We weren't able to finish where we should have. Not real happy about that finish."

MISCOMMUNICATION: Matt Kenseth's race all but ended early when he didn't heed a NASCAR penalty and was further penalized.

Kenseth's crew had a tire get away from them on a pit stop 72 laps into the race. The penalty is to restart at the back but crew chief Drew Blickensderfer misunderstood an official's instructions and Kenseth was not told to go to the rear. When the race restarted, NASCAR ordered Kenseth to pass through the pits where he fell a lap behind and never made it back, finishing 23rd.

"I told the head official when he came down there that he never told me I have to pit," Blickensderfer said. "He told me, 'Control your tires.' Those were his exact words. I thought, OK that meant we needed to be a little better at what we're doing so I kind of went about my business. The next thing I know we're five laps into the next run and they tell us we have to pit under green. That was disheartening to me, but, at the same time, the rules are the rules and we have to follow them."

PIT STOPS: Robby Gordon finished 40th. It's the eighth consecutive race he's finished 34th or worse at Martinsville. ... Jimmie Johnson's sixth win at Martinsville is his highest victory total at any track. &ellipses; Paul Menard climbed into the top 35 in car owner points with his 25th-place finish. That guarantees a starting spot this week at Texas. He knocked David Gilliland out of the top 35.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com