JOLIET, Ill. - A few rough minutes on the racetrack wiped the smile off Tony Stewart's face.

Stewart spent Friday morning at Chicagoland Speedway talking about how moving back home to Columbus, Ind., has made his professional and personal life happier and allowed him to deal better with setbacks.

He needed that newfound cool less than an hour later when his right front tire deflated, sending his No. 20 Chevrolet careening into the fourth-turn wall.

It's the second straight year Stewart has crashed during the Friday practice here, forcing him to move to a backup car.

A year ago, it was just a bump in the road. The uninjured Stewart jumped into the backup car later the same day, qualified 10th and wound up knocking Kasey Kahne out of the way as he raced to a victory on the 11/2-mile oval two days later.

This time, the crash sent Stewart to a local hospital to be checked out after appearing a bit wobbly when he got out of the car and complaining about some pain in his upper torso. Tests were negative, but Stewart was held out of qualifying.

J.J. Yeley, who drives a Busch series car for Joe Gibbs Racing, shook down the backup Cup car in practice and put it in the field in 13th position. That gave the team a good pit position for Sunday, but Stewart, who planned to practice in the car Saturday, will have to start from the rear of the 43-car field led by polesitter Jimmie Johnson in the USG Sheetrock 400 on Sunday.

"J.J. did a really nice job in the car and we decided to let him qualify the car and let Tony just rest and relax and be ready to do a great job on Sunday," crew chief Greg Zipadelli said. "It isn't the greatest situation to be in, but you've got to play the cards you're dealt."

Fortunately for Stewart, he seems to need little practice time on a track where he has finished third, second and first over the past three years.

"It's just one of those situations when you get a car that drives good," Stewart said Friday before the crash. "A lot of it depends on the car you bring and the package the crew chief puts on it. But we've just always run well here for some reason."

The 2005 season began in frustrating fashion for Stewart, who had three runner-up finishes before finally breaking through with a win last month on the road course in Sonoma, Calif. He followed that with a dominating victory - leading 151 of 160 laps - Saturday night at Daytona.

But even before he began winning races, the 2002 series champion was projecting a different image than the bad boy persona he has had over the years.

Stewart said the difference in his outlook on life stems from his move to Columbus, where he's living in the house in which he grew up.

"It's been huge for me," said Stewart, who moved from Charlotte, N.C., where the Gibbs team is based. "That's probably been one of the biggest factors that's helped me to be a lot more relaxed this year.

"The neighbors on both sides and across the street and behind me are all the same neighbors that were there when I was raised. They're older now, but they don't treat me any different than when I was a kid. I'm still the kid who used to hit the baseball through their windows."

The only thing upsetting Stewart these days - other than the occasional crash - is what he considers old news - questions about his previous run-ins with fans, the media and other drivers.

Since his rookie year in 1999, Stewart has been fined more than $100,000 and placed on probation by NASCAR four times. But he'd rather not talk about that.

"The single biggest thing that drives me nuts with media is having to answer questions about things that happened two or three or four years ago," Stewart said. "There's nothing I can do about those previous years. There is nothing I can do to erase it.

"All I can do is control what happens from the moment I'm sitting in this chair forward. But I've had a better year this year. I haven't annoyed everybody. I've tried to be a little better with the photographers and media and fans. Everybody has kind of noticed that."

It's true this Stewart has been a new, improved version so far in 2005. But, will it last in the crucible of racing?

"At the end of the day, I've got to go drive race cars and, when I go home, I don't worry about whether I was misunderstood or not anymore," he said. "I've just simplified everything. I quit worrying about stuff like that."