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DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Others might have had doubts about how well Tony Stewart would do in his first year as an owner/driver, but Rusty Wallace wasn't one of them.

"When you first looked at that thing getting ready to happen, you would say, this should work,'' says Wallace, an ESPN broadcaster who owns a Nationwide series team.

"Generally, if you have a really good driver, you generally have pretty decent results. You think of a great driver like Tony Stewart and now you've got great engines at Hendrick and great cars at Hendrick, plus you've got great Hendrick support. I can't imagine this not working.''

Stewart's first 10 races as an owner/driver haven't been problem-free -- just recall the cars crashed at Daytona and his outrage at Goodyear -- but as the series prepares to run the Southern 500 tonight at Darlington Raceway, Stewart and teammate Ryan Newman are both in the top 10 in points. That's significant. Last year, all of the drivers in the top 10 at this point made the Chase.

It's a dramatic improvement from last season when the team struggled to get one car in the top 35 in car owner points when it was known as Haas CNC Racing and Stewart was still driving for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Even before last season ended, Stewart began to reshape the organization. The ties with Hendrick Motorsports remained -- Hendrick provides chassis, engines and technical support.

Among the changes, Stewart added Bobby Hutchens, a longtime Richard Childress Racing employee, as director of competition. Stewart hired crew chief Tony Gibson to work with Newman. Gibson brought his car chief, four pit crew members, an engineer and three others from Dale Earnhardt Inc. Stewart's crew chief, Darian Grubb, came from Hendrick.

"There have been so many good people from so many different organizations, it's neat to watch them come and work together,'' Stewart says. "The great thing is that everybody was open-minded coming in. They brought all that knowledge but it wasn't set in stone that that's how things had to be done. We had the luxury of taking the best of all these different organizations &ellipses; and try to incorporate them all in one.''

That level of cooperation extends to the drivers, who share information and have recently shared success. Stewart and Newman both finished in the top five last week. At least one Stewart-Haas Racing car has finished in the top five in each of the last five races. Only Hendrick Motorsports has a longer streak, going seven consecutive races.

"It seems like when we sit down and talk about our cars, we understand what each other is talking about,'' Stewart says of Newman. "The crew chiefs are working well together. I think the performance would have been there if it wasn't for bad luck the first four weeks.''

The season started poorly for Stewart's team when Newman was involved in two crashes before the Daytona 500, including one in the final practice session before the race. Newman's right rear tire blew. The crash collected Stewart.

Stewart finished eighth with a backup car and showed his strength with top 10s in two of the next three races. Newman, driving a backup to the backup car in the Daytona 500, finished 36th. Early-season struggles had him 27th in the points after the fifth race. He has recovered since. "In my gut, I knew we had the potential and I felt that we had the equipment,'' Newman says.

It's just that time could be up for the competition if both drivers continue their success.

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