WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (AP) As he begins his emotional healing process, Tony Stewart might do well to remember the words of old rival Robby Gordon.

"A little love," Gordon said when asked to describe his latest scrape with Stewart.

No, Stewart didn't get into another off-track altercation. On the 13th lap of the race Sunday, he hit Gordon, then held him off at the end to win at Watkins Glen International.

Stewart was racing for the first time since being placed on a season-long probation for the second year in a row and fined $60,000 for punching a photographer Aug. 4 at the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis. He's seeking professional help for his explosive temper, but doesn't think the victory will begin to cure his problem.

"It's a Band-Aid," he said. "It's not going to heal me a bit."

But the tenor of Gordon - with whom Stewart once traded shoves in the garage area at Daytona - was one of respect for another aggressive racer without animosity borne by defeat. Stewart also could learn from it.

"Tony tried top dive-bomb me," Gordon said of the move Stewart made at the end of the front straight on the 2.45-mile road course. "He locked up his brakes, got into the side of me. That's racing."

Although he had to spend most of his time after the race explaining how ashamed he was of himself for his behavior a week earlier, Stewart might have unknowingly taken the first step on his road to recovery by easily accepting responsibility for hitting Gordon.

"It was my fault," Stewart said. "He gave me plenty of racing room down there on the bottom. I blew the corner and that's where the contact was."

Then, perhaps, came the second step in the self-healing process.

"I just kind of lifted to let him get his spot back because I wasn't going to take it by shoving him up the racetrack," Stewart said.

His Pontiac won by 1.636 seconds. It was his 15th career victory and third this year, matching Matt Kenseth for the most on the Winston Cup circuit.

Stewart hounded rookie Ryan Newman, who took the lead in his Ford on the 63rd of 90 laps, trying him inside and outside on the serpentine course. On the 72nd lap, the 31-year-old Stewart made his move on the 10th turn, and completed it on the 11th and final corner on the 72nd lap.

"Tony got me there coming into 10 and I was driving with the mirror the rest of the way," Newman said.

Stewart got away from Gordon with a quick restart one-third of the way through the $3.6 million event, and did the same thing to Newman when the green flag waved following caution periods that ended on the 76th and 82nd laps.

He survived one more restart after Kenny Wallace crashed hard into the foam wall on the 87th lap to bring out a race-halting red flag while the barrier was repaired. The race went green for a final lap - after a delay of 12 minutes, 45 seconds - but Stewart got the jump and drove away.

"I thought we still had a shot at it, but I wasn't ready for Tony to take off in turn 10," Gordon said of the final restart. "He snookered us there."

But Stewart rejected the notion that he was jumping the restarts.

"They were laying back trying to get a run at me," he said. "As a driver I did my job, and that's to take away their advantage.

"They can say what they want, but we won it honest."

Newman, making his first start on a road course, finished a career-best second in his first start on a road course, and got his fifth straight top-five finish. Gordon was right behind him in his Chevrolet.

P.J. Jones, in his first start for A.J. Foyt, finished fourth in a Pontiac. Polesitter Ricky Rudd, hoping to tie Jeff Gordon's record with a seventh road-course victory, was fifth in a Pontiac.

The win moved Stewart from seventh to fourth in the standings, just 104 points behind series leader Sterling Marlin. Beset by an engine problem, Marlin finished 30th. He leads 10th-place finisher Mark Martin by 53 points in the overall standings.

Defending race champion Jeff Gordon, seeking to win for the fifth time in six years on the track, wound up 22nd.

"It's definitely disappointing because this is a place we run real well at," the four-time series champion said after his 30th straight defeat.

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