Stewart: Young Drivers Lack Track Etiquette

Tony Stewart probably deserves a better fate than sitting 19th in points after the first three NASCAR Nextel Cup races of 2006.

After a solid fifth-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500, Stewart had the second-best car at California Speedway and wound up finishing last because of late-race engine failure.

Then, last Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Stewart spent most of the race in the top five but eventually faded to a 21st-place finish with a deflating tire.

The latest problem began on the 256th lap of a 270-lap event on the 1.5-mile Las Vegas oval when Stewart was trying to get past second-year driver Kyle Busch in a duel for third place.

“I had to push so hard to get by Kyle. We just got tight behind him and brushed the wall. That’s probably where we did the damage to the tire, but for sure it shoved the fender in. That’s what made me tight and lost us all those positions.

“Then at the end, we cut a tire down and had to go to the back. I’m not blaming Kyle for that because that was after the last pit stop. You’ve got less than 30 laps to go, you’ve got to race at that point. I have no ill feelings toward him over me hitting the wall while I was behind him.”

But Stewart, who criticized Busch for wild driving at Daytona, isn’t letting last year’s top rookie off the hook completely for what took place in Las Vegas.

“What I’m upset about is that with 80 laps to go we’re sitting there for 15 to 20 laps behind him trying to get by and he’s holding us up for no reason,” said Stewart, who at one point shook his fist at Busch and later bumped the 20-year-old’s car hard from behind.

“With 80 laps to go he’s holding us up and we all have another pit stop to make. Work on your car and go on. There’s just an etiquette. I’m frustrated with it, and I honestly think I have every right to be.”

Around the time Stewart bumped him, Busch was heard telling his crew on the radio, “That ... is trying to kill me.”

The youngster, who wound up third, insisted after the race he had no idea why Stewart was angry with him.

“The first time we really got going after each other was with about 40 laps to go, or something like that,” Busch said. “That’s the perfect amount of laps to go where it’s time to dig in deep and get after it and get on top of the wheel and start going. There is no more rolling over and playing dead and letting guys go and stuff like that -- Mark Martin style.

“If I might have aggravated Stewart a little bit, then I apologize to him for that. But if I give up one spot to him, then I get aero-tight behind him and then I’m going back five, eight or 10 spots, like I did. I think I gave up third spot to either him or [Kasey] Kahne or somebody. And then I fell all the way back to eighth.”

Stewart has a theory about why young drivers such as Busch are having some problems on track.

“I think it goes back to the Busch Series,” the two-time and reigning Cup champion said. “The worst thing that happened to that series was guys like Mark Martin, Bobby Labonte and Jeff Burton and some of the other veteran drivers that have been around a long time aren’t running the Busch Series anymore, or not as much as they used to.

“So, what’s happened is that younger drivers who have come up through Busch haven’t learned the respect of give and take. These Cup races are 400- to 500-mile races and drivers have to work with each other. You’re racing the whole race, but you have to race the race. You don’t race each other until the end.”

Stewart said he learned race etiquette by example.

“When I was in Busch, and even in my first year in Cup, I watched Mark Martin and paid attention to what he was doing,” Stewart said. “When he would let me go I would sit there and think, ‘Why is he letting me go?’

“And then you realize after he drives back by you that he was letting his car come to him while you were wearing your car out. Granted, it was in a day where the tires were different and they gave up a lot more and that’s where you learned the give and take because you had to take care of your tires. You couldn’t run 100% every lap.

“But now with the tires the way they are, you can run harder, longer,” he added. “But you still have to work with each other. Blocking and holding guys up when they’re obviously faster and they’ve caught you, that’s something you can’t do. You’ll end up making people mad.”

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The only driver hotter than Matt Kenseth so far this season is two-time race winner Jimmie Johnson.

Kenseth, who beat Johnson last month at California Speedway, trails the leader by 52 points heading into today’s Golden Corral 500 in Atlanta.

But Kenseth’s 214 laps led is the most so far this season and his average finish is sixth. And the 2003 Cup champion says he can’t wait to get onto Atlanta’s 1.54-mile oval.

“Probably, for what we have left on the circuit, with Rockingham being lost, Atlanta is probably the most fun track to race on as a driver,” Kenseth said. “You can run all over -- the bottom, the top, anywhere.

“The surface is real wore-out and the car changes a lot from the beginning of the run to the end of the run. I’m looking forward to going there. Of course, I’m looking forward to going anywhere with the way our stuff’s running right now.”

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Carl Edwards gave Ford victories in both Cup races last season at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Chevrolets won both races at the Hampton, Ga., track in 2003 and 2004.

Dodge has not won at Atlanta since Richard Petty took the Atlanta 500 in March 1977.