AVONDALE, Ariz. - A rare mistake by Tony Stewart's championship race team cost him a prime starting spot Saturday night at Phoenix International Raceway.

Stewart was supposed to start third, but had to move to the back of the field because his crew accidentally returned his qualifying tires to Goodyear and the tire company promptly destroyed them. It meant Stewart could not start the race on the tires he qualified on, a NASCAR requirement.

“It was probably too many chefs in the kitchen there working on the tires afterwards,” team president J.D. Gibbs said. “One of the guys who has a great heart was trying to help out and wound up messing up.

“It's very frustrating, but it's one of those deals ... It's just an innocent mistake and they feel awful about it.”

But if Stewart was concerned about having to start last in the 43-car field, he wasn't letting on.

“We've already made one mistake, lets show 'em why were Champs and dig ourselves out of it,” crew chief Greg Zipadelli radioed to Stewart right before the race began.

“No worries,” Stewart replied. “It's a lot more fun this way.”

EVERYTHING IS FINE: A pair of personnel changes, including the resignation of general manager Andy Graves, does not mean things are in chaos at Chip Ganassi Racing, the car owner said Saturday.

“Does it look like I'm panicking?” Ganassi said as he leaned back on a couch in a team hauler. “We're going to be fine. Everybody over here is fine.”

Graves helped Ganassi build his three-car operation from the ground up when the open-wheel car owner made the move to NASCAR in 2001. But the team expanded quickly and growing pains set in after a successful debut that saw Ganassi win five races in his first two years.

For now, Ganassi said he'll spread Graves' responsibilities out between his entire management staff.It's unclear where Graves will end up long. He can stay with Ganassi in a different role, but garage speculation had him moving on to a management role with another team - perhaps even with Toyota as the Japanese automaker prepares to make its NASCAR debut next season.

TESTING BLUES: Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler will test for Goodyear next week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, leaving Jeff Gordon wondering what he has to do to get selected for one of the sessions.

The Indy test will be the fourth Goodyear session this year. Although their purpose is to help the tire manufacturer select which compounds to use at that track, the sessions create extremely valuable track time for the teams.