Stewart Is Hitting on All Cylinders

All Tony Stewart ever wanted to do was drive race cars.

He got good at it, though, and his success has led to other things, such as facing TV cameras and microphones, reporters with pads in hand, or eager fans at his personal appearances for Home Depot, his sponsor.

“If I could just go out on the racetrack and drive, I’d be a whole lot happier,” he said during Speed Weeks at Daytona International Speedway while preparing for Sunday’s Daytona 500. “Things are a lot simpler when I’m racing a midget or my late model. Then there aren’t 40 guys swarming around, wanting me to talk about what I’m doing.”

As a Winston Cup rookie last season, he set such high standards, winning three times and finishing fourth in points, that he is one of the hottest properties in NASCAR. But a 34-race Winston Cup schedule is not enough for him. When he can find time--a couple of nights this week, or Thanksgiving night at Irwindale, or last month at Phoenix--he’ll hop in any kind of car and go racing.

“Open wheel racing is more fun, more relaxing,” he said, shocking some NASCAR stock car enthusiasts. “There’s not so much pressure. If I bang up a car, it’s no big deal. Here, if you bang one up, it’s a real big deal.”

Stewart drives the orange and white No. 20 Pontiac Grand Prix for Joe Gibbs, the former Super Bowl-winning coach of the Washington Redskins.

Two of the few subjects the 28-year-old Indiana native enjoys talking about are Gibbs and teammate Bobby Labonte, who finished second to Dale Jarrett in last season’s standings.

“I think what Joe Gibbs has done, in football and in racing, speaks for itself,” Stewart said. “He’s just a great motivator. He really not only cares about you as a professional athlete and race car driver, but he cares about me as a person. Just the way he’s able to assemble the right people and become so involved with the personalities of everybody that works with our organization.

“He and Bobby did so much for me last year. The whole year of ‘99, Bobby was a baby-sitter. Having Bobby with me was like having an Encyclopedia Brittanica on racing on my shelf. . . . You won’t find a lot of teammates willing to spend that much time with you.

“My hope this year is that I can help him. I owe him so much, I’m excited about working another year with him. Maybe I can give something back to him.”

Stewart isn’t as forthcoming with most of his answers, preferring flip replies to questions he hears over and over.

When asked why his Pontiac was not running as fast in practice as some of the others, he said, “If we knew, don’t you think we’d fix it?”

On his expectations for the 2000 season, he replied, “I’m tired of talking about it, to be honest. Everybody wants to talk about it. Let’s quit talking about it and let’s just do it.”

Is he excited about his prospects?

“If I wasn’t excited about it I wouldn’t be here.”

What are his concerns going into his second year?

“I worry about getting in my car and doing my job. As far as what’s going to happen, that’s for the media to speculate on. My job is just to get in the car and drive.”

Media interest centers on how Stewart will fare in comparison with Dale Earnhardt, who won the Winston Cup in his second season, and Jeff Gordon, who won it in his third.

How did Stewart and crew chief Greg Zipadelli, also a rookie last year, develop such chemistry?

“How do I know? It’s either there or it’s not. It was right there from our first test session.”

What is different in coming to Daytona this year?

“I guess the main thing is, I know how to get in and out of the race track, know where the drivers meetings are, and know where the best restaurants in Daytona are located.”

And what does he think about having to answer questions like that?

“I hate it. I don’t have any personal life anymore. I can’t even go out to dinner without being bothered. The popularity is nice, but people sometimes forget that we’re people.”

Stewart joined Gibbs’ team in 1997, the same year he won the Indy Racing League championship. After another year in the IRL and a partial season in Busch Grand National, Stewart jumped to Winston Cup last year and was an immediate contender.

In his first start, he qualified in the front row for last year’s Daytona 500. He didn’t do so well in the race, finishing 28th, but by midseason he was one of the best finishers in Winston Cup. He scored his first victory at Richmond, Va., in September, followed by consecutive wins at Homestead, Fla., and Phoenix in November.

He is the first rookie in Winston Cup history to win three races.

“Tony kept amazing me all year,” Gibbs said. “Before the season started, I said I’d be happy with a 20th-place finish in points. I wasn’t expecting a win. Then he got one, then two more. It’s just hard to believe, the way he matured. . . . “

Stewart and Labonte will be in the same 125-mile qualifying race Thursday, in with the powerful Fords of Jarrett, Bill Elliott, Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace.

“We’ll see how our Pontiacs are running and go from there,” Stewart said.

Labonte says Gibbs has no A team and B team, simply two A teams.

“Our setups are pretty closely the same, our race car is really the same,” Labonte said. “My crew might actually set up Tony’s car one week, or vice versa, or help set it up, so when you’ve got one organization working on both cars, hopefully you’ll have two really good race cars going to the race track each weekend.”

On race day, Gibbs plays it down the middle.

“Hey, you guys settle it out there on the racetrack as to who’s going to be the winning driver,” he said.

As much as Stewart enjoys driving, there was a day last season that he got his fill.

On Memorial Day weekend, he finished ninth in the Indianapolis 500 and fourth in NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, N.C., completing 1,090 miles of racing on the same day.

“I’m not going to try that again, although it was a lot of fun,” he said. “I think I let down my NASCAR guys because I got tired. If I had driven that race only, I think we could have won.”

One of his problems, not surprisingly, is persuading Gibbs to let him drive elsewhere.

“I don’t think Joe is keen on my racing so much, but he knows how much I love it so he kind of overlooks it sometimes,” Stewart said. “Of course, I’m a commodity that he and Home Depot have a lot of money and time invested in, so I can see his point. But you know, 34 races just aren’t enough.”

In 1995, he drove in 106 races, traveling back and forth across the country, winning U.S. Auto Club championships in midget, sprint and Silver Crown cars, the only driver to win those championships in the same year.

He may be tired of routine questions about NASCAR, but ask him about racing in the Copper Classic last month at Phoenix and his eyes light up.

“You should have been there,” he said. “I went out there to be grand marshal . . . and on a spur of the moment, I got in a midget and won [that race] when I caught Ryan Newman on the white-flag lap. Then I got in Davey Hamilton’s super-modified. I’d never even seen it before, but I started on the pole with a track record. I was running second when I cut a tire and had to come in. I got fifth.

“It was kind of like Irwindale. I did that on a whim too, and had more fun than I had all season. I hope I can get back there again this year.”

At Irwindale, in the Turkey Night Grand Prix, Stewart and USAC champion Jason Leffler battled for 100 laps before Stewart’s oil pump belt sheared and Leffler won on the next-to-last lap.

“Maybe it’s a disease, having to drive anything I’m around,” Stewart said.

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THE FACTS

* What: Speed Weeks 2000.

* Where: Daytona International Speedway.

* TV: Friday, Craftsman Truck 250, 8 a.m., ESPN. Saturday, Busch Grand National, 9 a.m., Ch. 2. Sunday, Daytona 500, 9 a.m., Ch. 2.