By alley - Jul 17, 2016, 9:05 PM ET

NASCAR: Stewart continues second-half surge

Tony Stewart continues to defy the odds in his final Sprint Cup season after posting a runner-up finish on Sunday in the New Hampshire 301.

The result continued a recent trend of success that came both before and after his victory last month at Sonoma Raceway. In fact, the second-place finish was his fourth top-10 in five starts, only interrupted by a fluky crash two weeks ago at Daytona International Speedway.

At 45-years-old and five months away from NASCAR retirement, Stewart is looking every bit like the Smoke of years gone bye.

"Everybody was kind of on edge because everybody wanted this last year to be good and we wanted to run good in this last year, so for Mike and I to get caught up with each other, we've really had to work hard at it. I think he's done a great job, but I think Sonoma really helped kind of relax everybody and gets us in the mode of racing again and not really worrying about what we were looking like out there and why aren't were performing."

Despite his victory, this is the weekend Stewart said he's the most proud of thus far in 2016. He and his team struggled from the moment they unloaded off the hauler. He believes this was a testament to how good they can be come time to race for the championship.

More specifically, it's Bugarewicz that Stewart believes could carry him to his fourth championship in his swan song season.

"Mike spent the whole night, while I went to Eldora for Kings Royal, Mike was working all night," Stewart said. "So my phone would vibrate in my pocket, and it's 11:00 at night and he's got a question still that he wants feedback on. That's the stuff I like about him.

"I mean, he's a workaholic, and I guarantee you he watched the entire race last night. The night before the race he watches every previous race there and just kind of watches what happens. So things are just jelling around us."