Stewart Not Your Typical Sunday Driver

The first question usually asked when Tony Stewart’s entry is filed for the Indianapolis 500 is, “What does Joe Gibbs say about that?”

Gibbs, the former Washington Redskin Super Bowl coach, is owner of Stewart’s Winston Cup car, and owners of high-ranking teams generally do not allow their drivers to take part in some other dangerous activity.

Making the question even more pertinent is that Stewart, after driving Sunday in the 500, will fly to Charlotte, N.C., to drive Gibbs’ Pontiac in that night’s Coca-Cola 600, the longest Winston Cup race of the year.

So, what does Gibbs say?

“In our original contract negotiations, Tony made it clear that he wanted to keep his options open for driving in the Indianapolis 500,” the car owner said. “He expressed his desire to win the 500, and we agreed that we would help him reach his goal. We think this is a good opportunity for him . . . to achieve his dream.

“In case of conflicts, Tony’s No. 1 responsibility will be the No. 20 Home Depot [stock] car and the Coca-Cola 600. We have made arrangements to assure that Tony will start the Winston Cup race.”

Those arrangements involve a nightmarish schedule.

Early Thursday, Stewart will fly from Charlotte to Indianapolis for an 8:30 a.m. drivers’ meeting. From 11 to 1 p.m., he will practice in one of Chip Ganassi’s four Oldsmobile-powered G Force cars during carburetion day. At 1:15, he will leave for Charlotte, where he will practice and try to qualify for the Coca-Cola 600.

After NASCAR’s final practice Saturday morning before Sunday night’s race, he will return here for an appearance at a local store.

Sunday, he will start the Indy race at 11 a.m., hopefully complete all 500 miles, then take a helicopter from Indianapolis Motor Speedway to the airport for a flight to Charlotte, and another helicopter ride to Lowe’s Speedway, where the Coca-Cola 600 is scheduled to start at 5:45 p.m.

Any hitch in the schedule, such as a rain-delay or a lengthy accident cleanup at Indianapolis, and Stewart will have to abandon Indy and head immediately for Charlotte.

“Tony has done a great job of preparing himself for this,” Gibbs said. “He’s in a far different condition than he was in ’99 [when he tried the same doubleheader].

“I really have to thank . . . our pilot, Wayne Cook. We’ve got backup helicopters, backup planes--we’ve got the whole thing ready. We even had a call from a general, who had us looking into an F-16 to fly him to Charlotte and then parachute him out.

“But we didn’t tell Tony because he probably would have done it.”

Stewart, 30, has been so successful, so fast in stock car racing that it’s easy to forget that only five years ago, when Tony George founded the Indy Racing League, Stewart was its poster boy.

Fresh from winning an unprecedented U.S. Auto Club sweep of Silver Crown, sprint and midget car championships in the same year, Stewart joined the IRL as the perfect example of what George said he wanted: young American drivers.

Having grown up only 45 miles south of here in Rushville, Ind., Stewart became a hometown hero when he qualified on the front row in his rookie year. He inherited the pole when No. 1 qualifier Scott Brayton was killed during practice.

When CART drivers boycotted the 1996 race in favor of the first U.S. 500 at Michigan International Speedway, Indy officials turned to Stewart as their main publicity tool. He was even flown to New York in George’s private plane to hype the race.

He led the first 31 laps, a record for a rookie at the start of the 500. Although he dropped out after 82 laps with engine woes, he was named rookie of the year. In 1997 he qualified second and led the first 50 laps before finishing fifth.

In a typically busy year, he won his first IRL race at Pikes Peak Raceway, won five USAC midget features, one Silver Crown race and ran four of NASCAR’s Busch series races. He also won the IRL championship by six points over Davey Hamilton.

Although Stewart drove in all IRL races in 1998, he also drove in 22 Busch races for Gibbs, then switched full time to Winston Cup in 1999. He became the first rookie to win three races, including consecutive victories at Phoenix and Homestead, Fla., and was rookie of the year.

That also was the year he tried the Indy-Charlotte double. He completed 1,090 miles of a potential 1,110, finishing ninth at Indy and fourth at Lowe’s, where he had to start at the rear of the field because he’d missed the drivers’ meeting.

“I’ll never do that again,” he exclaimed, nearly collapsing after the night race, probably as much from hunger as fatigue.

“You always hear people say that hindsight is 20/20,” Stewart said Tuesday from Charlotte. “Well, after doing it the first time, we realized we made some mistakes and there were some things that we could have done a lot better. But there were some things we did right too. The bad part was my conditioning.

“I’ll tell you exactly what I ate on race day [in 1999]. I had two mini-bagels and half of a Nutri-Grain bar in the airplane, and that’s all I had, except for what they tried to feed me in the car after about 200 laps into the race here. That was my biggest mistake. That’s where [physical trainer] Al Shuford comes into play this year. He knows exactly what he is feeding me and why, and what its purpose is. That is the biggest thing. . . .

“It was just as easy for me to drive through a McDonald’s and get my sandwich and go on down the road. Not anymore. Al is here to make sure I do it the right way--making sure I get only the right fluids and foods in my mouth.”

Dale Jarrett, 1999 Winston Cup champion, says he’s rooting for Stewart--at Indy at least.

“Tony is a young guy and I think just the pure excitement of being able to accomplish both will keep him going,” he said. “The adrenaline will see him through. I admire him for having the ability to do both.

“I’m pulling for him. I’d love to see him win the Indianapolis 500 and I hope he can run third behind Ricky [Rudd] and me at the Coca-Cola 600. That would be a good weekend for him.”

Jarrett and Rudd are teammates in Robert Yates Fords.

Responded Stewart, “If we win Indy, I promise you I’ll be on such a high that these guys down here [in the 600] won’t stand a chance.”