Stewart Needs to Control Temper

Tony Stewart has the racing part down. Now all he needs to do is control his temper.

Stewart, the runaway leader in the 1999 rookie of the year competition in NASCAR’s top series, has done more on the race track than anybody could expect from a first-year driver.

Going into today’s UAW-GM 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Stewart was fourth in the season points and the first rookie to win a race in the series since Davey Allison in 1989.

But the former Indy Racing League champion has also displayed a temper that has had NASCAR officials shaking their heads.

Several times this season, Stewart has brushed off the media or simply fled the scene immediately after a disappointing race finish. At times, he has gotten surly or sarcastic in interviews.

Then, last Sunday, Stewart lost his temper completely. After twice bumping the rear of Kenny Irwin’s car and sending his longtime short-track rival spinning out each time, Irwin retaliated, putting Stewart into the wall.

The rookie stood next to his battered car until Irwin came back around behind the pace car. He pointed at Irwin, threw his shoe guards at the windshield of Irwin’s car and reached into the open passenger-side window as if to grab Irwin.

For his actions, Stewart was fined $5,000. He also was brought into the NASCAR trailer for a private meeting with Irwin and his car-owner Robert Yates on Wednesday at the Lowe’s speedway.

Stewart, who got close to 200 e-mails on Monday, most of them critical, said, “It’s really hard. There’s no school you can go to for this. You don’t learn how to handle misfortunes. That’s just part of life.

“If people can’t let you learn through life, then eventually one day I’ll be back flipping hamburgers or something. Until that point comes, I’m going to do the best I can and hope the fans and everybody are big enough people to let me make mistakes.”

The 27-year-old Stewart says he made his peace with the 30-year-old Irwin, last year’s rookie of the year.

“After talking with Kenny and realizing that I had a misperception of what happened on Sunday and what he was thinking, I feel even worse about it,” Stewart said. “I am sorry for what has happened. One guy’s anger cost two good race cars some valuable points and money.”

Stewart said the meeting made him realize that both of the young, aggressive drivers help each other by being competitive.

“We push each other to make each other better and that helped us to get to this level,” he said.

Looking ahead to Sunday, Stewart said he isn’t worried about racing with Irwin.

“I’m probably going to feel more comfortable with him behind me now than I do with probably four or five other guys out there,” he said.

MOVING UP: Being 18th in the Winston Cup points with six races remaining isn’t exactly a benchmark, but second-year driver Steve Park is pretty proud of that performance.

Park was 34th in the points following the Pepsi 400 in Daytona Beach, Fla., in July. If you counted points only from that race, Park, who drives for Dale Earnhardt Inc., would be ninth in the standings.

“When we showed Earnhardt that, he said, ‘That doesn’t matter because they count everything since February,”’ Park said. “He’s right, but we’re still pretty happy with the way we’ve turned it around.”

Park said the team had a choice to make after Daytona.

“We could throw in the towel and sulk and tell everyone how good we were going to be in 2000, or we could go out and try to make things better now,” he said. “That’s what we’ve done.”

HONORED: Series points leader Dale Jarrett and his wife, Kelley, were honored Monday in Dallas for their contributions to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

The Jarretts and his NASCAR sponsor, Ford Credit, received the Jill Ireland Award for Voluntarism, presented in recognition of their volunteer and philanthropic support of the foundation through funding and public awareness efforts.

For the past two years, they have spearheaded a program to pledge donations to the foundation based on Jarrett’s race finishes. Ford Credit pledges $10,000 for every win, $7,500 for second-place finishes and $5,000 for thirds. Poles are worth $5,000 apiece.

That program generated $112,500 last year, and the Jarretts added $62,500 from their fund-raising work away from the racetrack.

Through the first 28 races of 1999, Jarrett has earned $95,000 in pledges from his sponsor and, on Monday, he and his wife gave the foundation a check for $86,000, which represented profits from merchandise sales so far this year.

STAT OF THE WEEK: Although Jarrett goes into Sunday’s race with a 251-point lead over Bobby Labonte, his total of 4,276 points in the first 28 races would not even be leading the series in two of the last four seasons. Jeff Gordon had 4,279 points at this juncture in 1995 and had totaled 4,457 last year heading into the race in Concord, N.C. Gordon went on to win the championship both years.