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Tony Stewart Dominates Tropicana 400

Written by John Davison · July 11, 2004

A once-again controversial Tony Stewart dominated the Tropicana 400 NEXTEL Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway Sunday. Starting tenth in a backup car, following a crash early in Friday practice, Stewart led 160 of the 267 laps, holding off challenges from Jimmie Johnson to take his first win for 2004.

“All he needed to do was go through a couple of corners, and he probably would have passed us” Kasey Kahne

Stewart’s win wasn’t without controversy as he lightly tapped Kasey Kahne’s Dodge on a lap 127 restart, sending Kahne hard into the wall and involving five more cars to one extent or another. Prior to this, Kahne had led the race early, taking over from Jeff Gordon. Kahne’s car received heavy damage, eventually returning to the track after a long stay in the garage for repairs.

“I got around the 40 car and got into the slot,” explained Stewart after the race. “I started checking up, then he checked up. I don’t know if somebody was pinching him to where he had to get out of the gas, if he missed a shift or what.

“I was right on his butt but all of a sudden he checked up and I don’t know what happened. But that was a bad deal,” Stewart added. “We could have been taken out as easily as anybody. I hate it for him.

“I’m waiting for somebody to tell me what happened. I got a real good run on the restart, got by the 40 car and got back in line behind him and didn’t even try to pass Kasey. As we came up to the wall, his car wiggled for some reason before I even got to him. I don’t know if he was shifting or missed a shift or what happened, but I had already stopped my momentum of catching up and all of a sudden, he backed up to us and we ran into the back of him. It was my fault that I ran into him, but I don’t know why he backed up. I don’t know what caused him to check up. It could have tore us up easily than it tore him up in all reality. So, it’s not something I was expecting by any means. He had a pretty good run. He had pulled away from the 40 car. Somebody said the 88 got pinched or something. I haven’t seen the tape of it see what happened. Something happened that broke his momentum. When he had the break in his momentum we were right on his rear bumper when it happened.”

“We had a pretty good racecar,” said young Kahne. “When we took off, I was in third gear and right as I was getting ready to shift into fourth I started getting a little loose. As I pulled it into fourth gear my car turned right and went into the wall. Obviously, the No. 20 was in the back of me and just put us up into the wall. I don’t know why he would do that, or what happened there. He had the car to beat all day. All he needed to do was go through a couple of corners, and he probably would have passed us.

“Right as our light came on my car started sliding a little bit in the back. I was kind of steering it and steering it, and right as I pulled it into fourth gear I got hit. I guess he was up under me and spun us into the wall. I don’t know what he was thinking. Our car hadn’t restarted very well all day long. We were just going up through the gears. If the car in front of you isn’t going fast, you can’t just turn them into the wall on the restart.”

Immediately after the crash, Kahne’s crew chief, Tommy Baldwin Jr, confronted Stewart’s chief, Greg Zippadelli in Stewart’s pit. What resulted appeared to be the NASCAR equivalent of a bench-clearing brawl in baseball or hockey, with both teams heavily involved in a shoving match.

Ray Evernham, Kahne’s team owner, had rather pointed comments about the incident: “Tony Stewart loses his temper again and takes us out for the second time this year. I mean, I don’t know. NASCAR refuses to do anything about it. You got a guy that does this week in and week out and nobody’s doing anything about it. He gave Rusty the finger. I’d like to have ten minutes with Tony Stewart and handle it myself. What happened there was unnecessary, and NASCAR needs to do something about it before somebody gets hurt. Now I’ve got a crew chief and other guys that have worked so hard on this car, every body’s ready to fight, and it’s the same guy week-in and week-out. Something needs to be done.

“I’d like to see him give me ten minutes by myself right now. He needs to be set down. He spun Kasey at Darlington for no reason. He’s lost his temper over and over again. I mean, that was blatant to have your rear wheels of that car off the ground, and he intentionally spun him out. It’s ridiculous. He got up against the back of him there for a shift and stayed on him and pushed him probably for about 50 or 60 feet before he finally spun him out. I mean, you know when you’re up against the back of somebody. (Kasey) said he wasn’t really sure what happened. He just said the back of the car picked up and suddenly spun out. He didn’t even realize that he was up against the back of him. Tommy (Baldwin)’s pretty upset, and he should be. Now, NASCAR’s calling him up in the trailer to talk to him, but Tony Stewart damn sure needs to be up there too. All (Tommy) did was run down there and try and break stuff off. I don’t know what exactly happened down there. I don’t condone that. I went down to split everybody up as best I could. I didn’t get down there until after the fact, so I can’t really comment on that.

“He definitely needs to get suspended, and he should have his ass beat. That’s the problem with him. Nobody has ever really grabbed him and given him a good beating. If he doesn’t get suspended, maybe I’ll do that. I don’t know [if he'll get suspended.] But right now he’s just crashed a bunch of cars, and he’s leading the race. That doesn’t say a lot for where we’re at right now. I asked (NASCAR) if they’re going to do anything about it over and over again. Obviously they’re not, because he’s still leading the race. Look what it cost this team. We certainly had a shot of running up front today. It could knock us out of a shot at the top 10. It hurts, and I just can’t believe that nothing has been done about it. Does someone have to get hurt? Is that what it’s going to take? Does somebody have to get hurt before they do something?

“We’re not going to play that game. If nothing’s done, we’ll just figure out some other way to handle it. This guy has never had his butt kicked.”

Following the race, Stewart did not perform the currently popular burnouts. “I didn’t need to” he explained. “It’s late enough in the day. I’m ready to go home. I got the next two weeks off. The sooner I get done the sooner I get out of here. I’m not going to burn up the motor or transmission or anything else. The race was over and I came in.

“We had a really strong car even with two tires. We knew track position was going to be important. As far as the deal with the 9,

Finish, Start, Driver, Car, Pts/Bonus, Laps, Notes
1) 10, Tony Stewart, No. 20 The Home Depot Chevrolet, 190/10, 267, Running
2) 3, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, 175/5, 267, Running
3) 29, Dale Jarrett, No. 88 UPS Ford, 165/0, 267, Running
4) 1, Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet, 165/5, 267, Running
5) 19, Jeremy Mayfield, No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge, 160/5, 267, Running
6) 24, Terry Labonte, No. 5 Kellogg’s Chevrolet, 155/5, 267, Running
7) 32, Sterling Marlin, No. 40 Coors Light Dodge, 151/5, 267, Running
8) 9, Joe Nemechek, No. 01 USG Sheetrock Chevrolet, 142/0, 267, Running
9) 39, Michael Waltrip, No. 15 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, 138/0, 267, Running
10) 17, Kevin Harvick, No. 29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet, 134/0, 267, Running
11) 20, Rusty Wallace, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, 130/0, 267, Running
12) 26, Matt Kenseth, No. 17 DeWalt Power Tools Ford, 132/5, 267, Running
13) 14, Jamie McMurray, No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge, 124/0, 267, Running
14) 4, Brian Vickers*, No. 25 GMAC Financial Services Chevrolet, 121/0, 267, Running
15) 12, Casey Mears, No. 41 Target Dodge, 118/0, 267, Running
16) 31, John Andretti, No. 1 Kraft Foods Chevrolet, 115/0, 267, Running
17) 23, Robby Gordon, No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet, 117/5, 267, Running
18) 11, Bobby Labonte, No. 18 Wellbutrin XL Chevrolet, 114/5, 267, Running
19) 22, Ward Burton, No. 0 NetZero HiSpeed Chevrolet, 106/0, 267, Running
20) 5, Greg Biffle, No. 16 National Guard Ford, 103/0, 267, Running
21) 13, Elliott Sadler, No. 38 M&M’s Ford, 100/0, 267, Running
22) 25, Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet, 97/0, 267, Running
23) 40, Scott Wimmer*, No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge, 94/0, 267, Running
24) 18, Mark Martin, No. 6 Viagra Ford, 96/5, 265, Running
25) 34, Jimmy Spencer, No. 4 Wide Open Energy Drink Chevrolet, 88/0, 265, Running
26) 42, Kyle Petty, No. 45 Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge, 85/0, 265, Running
27) 41, Ken Schrader, No. 49 Red Baron Frozen Pizza Dodge, 82/0, 263, Running
28) 38, Jeff Green, No. 43 Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories Dodge, 79/0, 248, Off Track
29) 16, Scott Riggs*, No. 10 Valvoline Chevrolet, 76/0, 245, Running
30) 15, Brendan Gaughan*, No. 77 Kodak/Jasper Engines Dodge, 73/0, 240, Running
31) 7, Mike Bliss, No. 80 ConAgra/Slim Jim Chevrolet, 70/0, 205, Off Track
32) 30, Ricky Rudd, No. 21 Motorcraft/U.S. Air Force Ford, 67/0, 204, Running
33) 6, Jeff Burton, No. 99 Comcast Ford, 64/0, 197, Running
34) 8, Ryan Newman, No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge, 61/0, 166, Off Track
35) 21, Kurt Busch, No. 97 Sharpie/IRWIN Industrial Tools Ford, 58/0, 151, Running
36) 2, Kasey Kahne*, No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge, 60/5, 136, Off Track
37) 36, Dave Blaney, No. 30 America Online Chevrolet, 57/5, 129, Out of Race
38) 35, Ricky Craven, No. 32 Tide Chevrolet, 49/0, 116, Out of Race
39) 43, PJ Jones, No. 50 Arnold Development Companies Dodge, 46/0, 108, Off Track
40) 33, Hermie Sadler, No. 02 SCORE Motorsports Chevrolet, 43/0, 103, Out of Race
41) 28, Bobby Hamilton Jr., No. 09 Phoenix Racing Dodge, 40/0, 86, Out of Race
42) 27, Kevin Lepage, No. 51 NegotiationsSeminar.com Chevrolet, 42/5, 34, Out of Race
43) 37, Chad Blount, No. 37 Carter’s Royal Dispos-all Dodge, 34/0, 3, Out of Race
*: Rookie

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Comments

7 Responses to “Tony Stewart Dominates Tropicana 400”

  1. MuddyTeeth on July 11th, 2004 7:50 pm

    Wow.

    Tony definitely drove too hard into the corner for a restart.

    Ray Evernham and Tommy Baldwin want to kick his ass.

    NASCAR had the chance to do the right thing two weeks ago, now they have created a situation where guys are going to start retaliating on the track.

  2. George on July 11th, 2004 7:54 pm

    Hendrick Motorsports continues to impress with Johnson in 2nd, Gordon in 4th, Texas Terry in 6th and Vickers in 14th. Sounds like the team to beat down the stretch.

    Will NASCAR impose any penalties on Stewart and Gibbs Racing? Unlikely in my opinion, even though he is deserving of at least a slap for his continuing rough driving.

  3. Courtney on July 11th, 2004 11:14 pm

    I think that Tony has done some rough driving this year, but I also think that he has received a lot of heat for regular racing deals. As a bystander, sometimes I feel people are trying to lynch him. If anyone else had been in the car, this would not be receiving this much attention. Tony had newer tires than Kahne, he would not want to wreck his car since he was dominant, and Kasey has already admitted that his car was bad on restarts and sliding in the back on this restart. In this situation, perhaps Baldwin should be punished. Tony was punished for a similar incident 2 weeks ago. I am glad to see some people in the media wiewing this with more unbiased opinions versus some incidents earlier in the year that were not intentional (admittedly he has had intentional incidents…this NOT one of them).

  4. John on July 12th, 2004 12:27 am

    Tony Stewart is a menace. He needs to go. No one has damaged NASCARs reputation as much as him. He’ll injure or kill someone with his actions.

  5. Andrew on July 12th, 2004 12:28 am

    Todays Tony Stewart Contact Of The Race was clearly a racing incident. (no sarcasm)

    And the crew on crew fight afterwards was just another attempt by nascar to prove that it is losing its redneck roots. (sarcasm)

  6. MuddyTeeth on July 12th, 2004 8:25 am

    I agree with you, Courtney, that Stewart didn’t intentionally wreck Kahne.

    The complaint that Evernham has is this: Stewart has better car control than just about any driver on the track. He knows how much room to give going into the first turn on a restart, and he got impatient and crowded the leader instead.

    The in result is he put them both in a position where he KNEW that if Kahne slipped at all, there would be contact.

    When Kahne did check up, it looked like Stewart did so as well momentarily. But if you hold Stewart up for more than a second, his policy seems to be “back to the gas, consequences be damned.” He has run over more people from behind this than a 16 year old ARCA driver.

    For someone with Stewart’s undeniable skills, you have to believe that many of these wrecks are preventable.

  7. MuddyTeeth on July 12th, 2004 8:28 am

    George, I agree that this looks like Hendrick’s will win with either Johnson or Gordon.

    It has been fun watching Johnson’s team turn into a seasoned championship contender. You gotta love Chad Knaus’ spirit and confidence.

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