Stewart’s the Name and Prolific Racing Is the Game

The new stream-lined Indianapolis 500 schedule, eliminating a week of practice and compressing two weekends of qualifying into one, has been a popular change for many reasons.

Indy Racing League champion Tony Stewart might have the most unusual, however.

“It opened up the possibility of my running three or four more races,” said the kid from Columbus, Ind., who is the favorite to win the pole Saturday for the May 24 Indy 500.

As soon as he takes his four laps Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he plans to head a few miles to the west to run a Silver Crown car for A.J. Foyt in the Coca-Cola 100, a U.S. Auto Club race at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

“I can’t wait for Saturday night,” he said after practice Thursday, his eyes lighting up like a little kid’s at a birthday party.

And what if he is the fastest qualifier and has to stick around the Speedway to accept the $125,000 plus in pole awards.

“If I have to go through the ceremonies, I’ll just have to hurry to get to IRP. I’ll run with no practice. I don’t practice for those races anyway.

“A.J. and George Snider haul the car to the races, and I climb in and drive. When the day is done, we grab something to eat and sit around and jaw about racing. It’s always been fun, no matter what happened on the track. They’re great guys to race with.”

Last year, after qualifying fifth for the 500, Stewart dashed to IRP and won a USAC midget main event.

Taking advantage of this year’s late starting date for 500 practice, Stewart finished second to Buckshot Jones last Saturday in a NASCAR Busch Grand National race in Loudon, N.H., and then flew home to run his own late model stock car in a dirt track race that night at Northern Kentucky Speedway.

After crashing out, he headed for Indianapolis where he showed up Sunday morning to begin practice in Team Menard’s G Force-Aurora.

Although NASCAR Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon never raced Indy cars, he followed much the same pattern that Stewart is taking--up from go-karts to USAC sprint, midget and Silver Crown cars to Busch Grand National and Winston Cup.

This is Stewart’s last year with the IRL as he will become a full-time stock car driver for former NFL Super Bowl coach Joe Gibbs next season.

“Two years ago, Gordon spent a lot of time with me, talking about making the transition from open-wheel midgets and sprint cars to stock cars,” Stewart said. “I haven’t had the opportunity to talk much with him since. I’ve been in three races with him, but we were never close enough to each other to really race.”

The first occasion was an indoor midget race at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis in 1994. Both of them crashed out. The other times were the International Race of Champions last January at Daytona and last month at California Speedway.

“He won, I finished ninth, that was about it,” Stewart said of the Daytona IROC. At Fontana, Gordon was third, Stewart seventh.

What about next week, when Indy 500 drivers and teams are off until Thursday’s Carburetion Day?

“I’ve got my eye on a couple of races, but I’d better not say, I don’t think Larry [Curry, Team Menard manager] or Joe Gibbs want to hear about it,” he said, only half kidding.

NASCAR

There is nothing at stake but bragging rights and pride, but the Winston, NASCAR’s version of an all-star game, will be as fiercely fought Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway as any Winston Cup points race.

Nineteen drivers, all winners or former champions, have qualified for the three-part race. A 20th driver will come from the Winston Open, a 50-lap preliminary for drivers not yet qualified--a group that includes points leader Jeremy Mayfield, Jimmy Spencer and Ken Schrader.

The first two segments of the Winston will be 30 laps each, with the field partially inverted after the first race. The final shootout will be 10 laps.

Unlike Winston Cup races, which can finish under the yellow caution flag, the Winston mandates a green-flag finish.

John Andretti, who drives Richard Petty’s STP Pontiac, doesn’t like it.

“Our races are based on distance,” he said. “You’re going 500 miles or 500 laps. When you’ve done that, you stop. Timed races, like the 24 Hours of Daytona, have ended under caution too. You don’t run for 24 hours and then, if a caution comes out one minute from the end, say, ‘Well, let’s go another 15 minutes.’

“This isn’t basketball or football. We don’t play by the clock; we play by the distance. You base all of your pit strategy and all of your driving strategy on that. What’s the difference in a caution five laps into the race and five laps from the end?

“It’s still a caution and still plays a big role in your strategy.”

Morgan-McClure Motorsports driver Bobby Hamilton says the final 10 laps of the Winston “are a 20-car game of chicken.”

“What’s that deal they have in Spain? The running of the bulls? Well, the last 10 laps make that look like a little girl’s tea party. It’s every man for himself. You hardly even look to the sides of you, all you do is look straight ahead and go for the checkered flag.”

Stock car racing, says Hamilton, “is what you would end up with if you could combine chess, professional football and boxing.”

FORMULA ONE

Bernie Ecclestone, who runs the world championship Grand Prix Assn., is scheduled to be in Indianapolis for the 500 to confer with Tony George about the possibility of running a Formula One race inside Indianapolis Motor Speedway. George has already laid out a course in hopes of adding F1 to the track’s Indy 500 and Brickyard 400 schedule.

Ecclestone is also studying ideas from Long Beach Grand Prix founder Chris Pook on proposed street circuits in San Francisco, Atlanta or Dallas, and another from Road Atlanta owner Don Panoz for his road racing track north of Atlanta.

TOO FAST

Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Gordon Johncock had a word of warning about escalating speeds in CART champ cars when asked about the state of open-wheel racing.

“I think they’d put on a better race if they only ran 200 mph. They’re very, very lucky they didn’t kill somebody out in California at that new track running 242 mph. They had some horrendous crashes, they’re very lucky they didn’t kill somebody traveling those kinds of speeds.

“I think the majority of fans like to see a good race. I’m not saying they don’t like to see a few good spins and crashes like that, but they don’t need to be going 240 mph when they do it.”

LAST LAPS

Twenty-five laps on a brakeless speedway motorcycle is like a marathon for riders who normally run four-lap races, but that’s what International Speedway Inc., has scheduled for Saturday night at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. Brad Oxley, who won the Coors Light Classic long-distance race the last three years, will start with a record 70-yard handicap.

Drag racing for imported cars will be showcased Sunday at Famoso Raceway, near Bakersfield, when the National Import Racing Assn. holds its Toyo Tires California Import Nationals. Stylish street machines, from Acuras and Hondas to Mazdas, Volkswagens, BMWs and others will compete in heads-up shoot-outs in five classes. Among the entries is Lee Mueller, 58, a four-time SCCA national champion who will drive a Mazda RX-3. Mueller is returning to racing after undergoing a heart transplant in 1989.

Young French motocross riders seem to have found a home on Southern California tracks. First, Kawasaki’s Sebastien Tortelli stunned 60,000 fans at the Coliseum by winning the season’s opening Supercross. Then, last Sunday at Glen Helen Raceway, Suzuki’s Mickael Pichon upset Jeremy McGrath and other American riders in the opening event of the national 250cc season before 12,000 spectators.

Ron Hornaday Jr., who has won NASCAR championships at Saugus Speedway, the Featherlite Southwest Tour and in Craftsman Trucks, will make his debut in a Busch Grand National stock car Sunday at Nazareth, Pa. Hornaday, who regularly drives a truck for Dale and Teresa Earnhardt, will step into a Chevrolet Monte Carlo usually driven by Robert Pressley, who will be in Charlotte for the Winston all-star race.