Star driver Stewart savors the short-track life
Ex-NASCAR champ likes the small stage
SUN PRAIRIE – It’s a good five hours before the feature will run and Tony Stewart is working on helmet visors he’ll wear in the coming nights.
Max, his German Shepherd, strolls by with nary a care. “That’s the only thing I’m doing today,” the three-time NASCAR champ says. “It’s kind of fun.” Well, not quite the only thing. Before long Stewart would climb into a winged sprint car and do what he’s done for most of his 46 years, stand on the gas. But it’s a Thursday night. He’s at Angell Park Speedway, a third-mile clay track on the edge of a midsized town in south central Wisconsin, only because he wants to be, not because he has to. He last raced at the track 15 years ago. Stewart knows people here, and they knew him back when.
The NASCAR grind that for 20 years gave Stewart a very comfortable living but ultimately wore him down is six months behind him.
The four-car Sprint Cup team that bears his name will compete this weekend 850 miles from here. Whether he gets there isn’t really important. He’ll make about twothirds of the schedule.
Late models are racing at the famous dirt track Stewart owns in Ohio, but he has good people to look after that. He’s more concerned about getting his sprint car to run as well as he knows it should.
Fans are happy to see he came back for this makeup of a show rained out last month.
“He should be at Eldora, and he’s helping us out and Angell Park out by being here,” said Steve Sinclair, president of the
Interstate Racing Association, which sanctioned Thursday’s race. “That goes a long way. He deserves some credit on this one.”
Fans are happy to see Stewart. So are IRA regulars, who will enjoy a larger purse than usual because Stewart is here.
Wearing shorts, a Coke T-shirt and an irrepressible smile, a relaxed Stewart says he’s living in the best of all worlds.
“I can do this and have fun,” said Stewart, who is in the midst of a road trip with three buddies and his dog. “I get to show up at NASCAR races and see people I want to see, be a part of it and enjoy it from that aspect.
“I don’t know how it gets better than this. I really don’t.
“When I go to bed after a weekend like this, I think about how awesome it is to be able to do this.”
Thirty years ago, Stewart dreamed of winning USAC titles. Did that. Then he dreamed of winning the Indianapolis 500. He didn’t, but did claim an Indy Racing League championship. He saw what NASCAR had to offer and won titles in 2002, ’05 and ’11.
Then the dream changed once more. After retiring from bigtime stock car racing at the end of last year, Stewart is a nomad again by choice, picking events that intrigue him for whatever reason.
He has one interview scheduled on this day, not a circle of cameramen capturing every move.
In that way, this is like a night decades ago, but it also lacks the urgency of those days, when performance on the racetrack was his meal ticket.
“But it’s still my reputation,” Stewart reminds his visitor.
“I just like proving the naysayers wrong, the ones that say, ‘Aw, he’s lost it. He doesn’t have it anymore.’ They can kiss my (expletive). I’ve still got it.
“We’ve just got to get the car figured out. If we get that right, it’ll show again. That’s important to me.”
Coming into the race Thursday, Stewart had parked his No. 14 in victory lane just once this season, in the United Sprint Car Series in Ocala, Fla.
His results are frustrating, but Stewart knows he and his crew will figure out what his car wants on the various series are using this season.
And the pressure is different, more manageable, from what he’d felt for so many years.
“I used to get really worked up about making sure I ran good,” Stewart said. “Now the priority is first making sure I have fun.
“But I’m still a competitor and I still want to win as bad as I always have. When you’re not winning and not running good it’s not fun.”