Tony Stewart was all smiles Sunday after his second straight eighth-place finish of 2009.

Stewart, who left his longtime home at Joe Gibbs Racing after last season to become co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, said repeatedly before the season-opening Daytona 500 that he didn’t know what to expect from his new team.

So far, so good.

“I’m not really that good here,” Stewart said. “It tells you the car is better than I am probably. (But) I think we’re capable of doing it. I mean, we’ve done it two weeks in a row now.”

Stewart said that Sunday’s Auto Club 500 was a truer test of where the team is than at Daytona, where engine restrictors produce a whole different style of racing than at most of the other tracks where NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series competes.

“I was satisfied with the results of it,” Stewart said. “We seemed to go back and forth on catching up with (the car), so I was pretty happy with the communication today. The guys had really good pit stops. That last stop out there they got us out seventh and I couldn’t hold us up there. But, I felt like, team-wise we’ve been solid for two and a half weeks straight here now.”

Hookscenter.com wire report.