MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Tony Stewart is in high gear this racing season.

He has already won twice in the 2012 season and believes he’s running as well as he ever has during his NASCAR career.

The almost 41-year-old defending Sprint Cup Series champion has won seven of the last 15 races run dating back to last year and is obviously pleased with the performance of his race team.

“This is definitely the biggest one so far,” Stewart said of his successful run. “Especially to go through an off-season and pick it back up and to have some pretty big personnel changes in the middle of all that so, it’s pretty big right now. You know the hard part is that you just don't want it to end, you want it to stay like this.”

Stewart has spent 17 years of erratic racing. He has bounced around, from Indy cars to NASCAR, from the blinding limelight on the Indianapolis 500’s star rookie in 1996 through many a transition.

Along the way, he’s had many an angry outburst, including time spent on the carpet with NASCAR. In 2001, after a particular rough couple of races, Stewart said, “It’s either NASCAR’s way, or the highway, and I might be on my way.”

But after winning his first Cup title in 2002, he seemed to overcome some of his demons, and since then, has been more calm and relaxed.

Stewart stopped short of calling this year’s streak the best of his entire racing career with the success he’s experienced during his USAC open-wheel days and Indy Car tenure.

“I don’t know that it is the best I have run in my career but it is pretty close,” he said at Martinsville Speedway. “I mean when we were running the year we won the Triple Crown in ’95 I feel like that is the best that I had ever run in my career and I don’t feel like we are far off that right now.

“This is the best I have run in NASCAR I think as far as just a long, consistent run like this.”

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