MARTINSVILLE -- Tony Stewart is coming closer to scoring his first NASCAR Sprint Cup victory as owner/driver less than two months into the season.

Stewart, in his first year as owner/driver, finished a season-best third Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. Stewart's teammate, Ryan Newman, finished sixth, marking the first time this year both Stewart-Haas Racing cars placed in the top 10.

"You know, it's coming,'' said Stewart after his fourth top-10 finish in six races. "It just takes time. It's like we say every Monday in our competition meeting. We've just got to build a database first. Once we get that established, then I think the second time around, we're going to be a little better yet.''

Newman gained two spots in the final laps to finish sixth, passing Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin late.

"Each race has been better all year long,'' Newman said. "Hopefully, that's a sign of things to come.''

Getting better

While car owner Rick Hendrick was thrilled with Jimmie Johnson's victory, he also was pleased with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s eighth-place finish. Since poor finishes at Daytona and California to open the season, Earnhardt has not finished worse than 14th. He climbed three spots to 16th in the points Sunday.

"The 88 team and Dale worked hard,'' Hendrick said. "They're making some good progress.''

Earnhardt, though, couldn't share his boss' feelings.

"We were a pretty good car all day and made some adjustments at the end that weren't helping the car,'' Earnhardt said.

Miscommunication

Matt Kenseth's race all but ended early when he didn't heed a NASCAR penalty and was further penalized.

Kenseth's crew had a tire get away from them on a pit stop 72 laps into the race. The penalty is to restart at the back, but crew chief Drew Blickensderfer misunderstood an official's instructions and Kenseth was not told to go to the rear.

When the race restarted, NASCAR ordered Kenseth to pass through the pits where he fell a lap behind and never made it back, finishing 23rd.

"I told the head official when he came down there that he never told me I have to pit,'' Blickensderfer said. "He told me, 'Control your tires.' Those were his exact words. I thought, OK that meant we needed to be a little better at what we're doing so I kind of went about my business."

Puddle of mud

Persistent rain the last few days made parking a challenge for fans before Sunday's race.

Clay Campbell, track president, said the wet grounds prevented the track from using about 25 percent of available parking.

"I certainly appreciate the fans and their patience and how they worked with us coming here, knowing that conditions were unfavorable,'' Campbell said. "They helped a lot to make it work and I know they were backed up in traffic.''

Someone might ask why not pave more areas, but Campbell says that's not as easy as it sounds. Plus, much of the area is rolling terrain that would be difficult to pave.

"When you're looking at 300 acres, there's just no way you're going to make much of a difference,'' he said.

Speed demon

Scott Speed thinks Kyle Busch owes him. Speed started 36th and led 12 laps early after the leaders pitted under caution, but was spun out by Busch and sustained damage.

He headed for the garage, crashed again later and finished 39th.

"I'm sure Kyle is going to offer to buy me dinner since that's the second time this year that he's wrecked me," Speed said, laughing. "So, I'm looking forward to that."

Pit stops

Robby Gordon finished 40th. It's the eighth consecutive race he's finished 34th or worse at Martinsville. ... Jimmie Johnson's sixth win at Martinsville is his highest victory total at any track. ... Paul Menard climbed into the top 35 in car owner points with his 25th-place finish. That guarantees a starting spot this week at Texas. He knocked David Gilliland out of the top 35.

Associated Press contributed to this story.