Tony Stewart NASCAR Teleconference
Written by John Davison · July 27, 2004
Tony Stewart met the press Tuesday via teleconference. One of the items discussed was the proposal to put radio-controlled caution warning lights in the cars at NASCAR races.
Pocono has been really good to you throughout your career, but the last two outings probably haven’t produced the results that you’re used to at that track. How about your recent hot streak and the confidence you’ve gained from that. Will the 20 team use that to reverse that trend at Pocono on Sunday?
Tony Stewart: Well, we hope so. I think the last four races we’ve had top five finishes so it will be a nice string to continue with right now. It’s that part of the season where we typically in the past have been able to string along a lot of top 5’s. Hopefully the things that we’ve learned here recently with an Indy test and some others runs that we’ve done in the past couple weeks, hopefully some of that information we can use at Pocono this time.”
Q: Pocono gives way to a visit for you back home to Indiana and the Brickyard in two weeks. Can you talk about your preparation for the Brickyard and your feeling about the history of that event and the venue in particular?
Stewart: “Well, we went and tested this year. Last year we didn’t use one of our tests there but we used one of our two day tests there on our off week. We felt like we had a very productive test. Just showing up there for a test it sends goose bumps down your spine for somebody like me that grew up around Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Obviously it’s a big week for us. Everybody’s question normally is what is it going to mean to win there? It will be one of the biggest ones of my career obviously, if not the biggest win as far as an individual race. You still have to treat it as one of the 36 on the schedule. It’s still one of the first 26 that get us into that playoff format. It’s real important for us to have a good run at Indy.”
Caution lights on the dash and also tail lights. You’re familiar with caution lights from your Indy car racing. How do you feel about the possibility of having caution lights on the dashboard?
Stewart: “I think it’s a good idea. It was actually brought up in a private meeting at Chicago with the drivers and teams talking about the format of how they are freezing the field and how they’re going in depth with the teams and drivers about how it worked. That was one of the topics that was brought up and NASCAR is currently looking at that right now. The biggest factor in doing that is finding a system that can’t be tampered with from an outside source. That’s something that’s very important and that could be a very big catastrophe for our sport to have. Cars going around the race track and all; particular cars or all the cars all of a sudden you get a caution light for no reason. A lot of times we give NASCAR a lot of criticism for some things that they do or don’t do. A lot of the times the things that they don’t do, they are in the process of working on and this is one of them. They will research this very thoroughly and come up with something that will work along those lines as a dash deal, but they won’t do it until they know it’s 100% effective and reliable. I think it’s something that will work very well. It works very very well in the IRL. Obviously the lights can relay a message quicker tha a spotter can tell you that a caution is out. I think it’s something that will work very well.”
In the driver meeting this past week with Mike Helton talking about the sponsor bottles on top of the cars. I had to think of Fittapaldi at Indy winning and would not drink the milk because of his orange groves. What are your thoughts and your car being in the winners circle and having a competing sponsor bottle on it? Do you think there’s a better way to do it?
Stewart: “I don’t know. I think it’s a bad position in a way corporate NASCAR has put us in to. You look at Coca-Cola for example, Coca-Cola is the official soft drink of NASCAR and ISC who is all of the same family and all their family is Pepsi Cola tracks. It kind of seems like a conflict of interest and they are kind of playing both sides of the fence there and that’s what gets us in the conflicts that we have. I think it should be up to the teams, I mean we have sponsors that we’re responsible to and we have obligation to those sponsors and I don’t think it’s fair for anybody to put anything on top of our race cars after we won the race. That’s our space, if they want to buy a commercial, that’s their time to do that. I think the drivers taking the product off the car; I think we have a right to do that in all honesty. But, we’re not NASCAR we don’t control that side of it and we will abide their rules.”
The change in leadership as a team going from Joe Gibbs to J.D. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the changes in personalities and some of the changes in the style of the people who are running the team right now?
Stewart: “To be honest, it didn’t really affect me from my standpoint. I didn’t know what to expect totally going through as far as much of the season with J.D. leading the team. I’m really impressed what J.D. has done and what he’s been able to do so far. There have been a lot of changes and not necessary that Joe wasn’t in line with. It’s a longer time table that it was suppose to happen. J.D. has continued with those plans and made a lot of things happen. I’ve been really impressed so far, his leadership is and he’s come out of his shell so to speak. It’s hard to grow up being one of Joe Gibbs’ sons. Now that J.D. has been put in the leadership position he’s really shown how much leadership ability he has and I don’t know if any of us realized how good of a leader he was going to be while Joe was running the operation. Now that J.D. has control, Joe’s still very involved in racing, but J.D. has really taken it upon himself and has really I think surprised everybody in how well he’s really done in running the team. I don’t feel like we’re missing anything, I don’t feel like there’s any weakness with our leadership right now. I really feel like we’ve come up with a breath of fresh air and not that a change was needed by any means. We all miss Joe daily. With a change there’s always speculation on what’s going to happen. I think we’ve all been pleasantly surprised with how well the changes have worked so far.”
Can you talk about any of the specific changes that J.D. made. What are some of the details that are different than Joe had?
Stewart: “If I told you then we’ve been telling all the other race teams that. I don’t really want to share that information right now. I can say that we’ve got a 2 year, 3 year, 5 year plan on paper and in place that J.D. has executed and stuff that has been in the works already. A lot of times when you change leadership like this plans that are in motion can be put on hold for awhile while there is a restruction so to speak and that’s something that J.D. didn’t allow to happen. Everything has been running along smoothly and has really progressed a lot faster in some areas than a lot of us anticipated it happening.”
I got an email yesterday asking if Tony has talked to Kasey Kahne yet, please ask him. So have you guys had a chance to chat yet?
Stewart: “Actually that’s was the reason I was late, I was talking to Kasey on the phone. I think a lot of my questions got answered, but there are no problems between Kasey and I. We’ve probably had a good _ hour talk and I had to cut it short obviously, but we got through the meat of the conversation and we were laughing about a lot of things. I told him I would call him back later this afternoon. It was a very productive phone call.”
Did that take the weight off of both of you just to have that over and just to explain yourself?
Stewart: “It wasn’t a big weight anyway. We’re two racecar drivers and the grudges in this day in age aren’t as mad as what they used to be in the past. I just asked Kasey what happened and he told me what happened and I told him my prospective on it and we both have an understanding on the other persons prospective now of what happened. There are only two people who know what happened and that’s Kasey and myself and I didn’t know the whole story and I’m sure he didn’t know the whole story. At least now we have the full picture of what happened.”
They were talking about the dashboard caution lights. How about the possibility of functioning tail lights on race cars? Would that just drive the drivers crazy or would it be a marginal role in helping the driver avoid plowing into the car in front of him. What about tail lights, Tony?
Stewart: “I don’t think we need tail lights on a race car. I think the sports car racing is good because they are running at night. For 50 plus years, NASCAR has made it without tail lights. I don’t think we’re going to need head lights or tail lights in the near future. To be honest it’s just a distraction more than anything for the drivers on the racetrack. I know running the sports car it took some getting used to seeing break lights come on. I think the caution lights are enough of a solution to handle all the problems that we have here.”
How do you balance your racing style as you continue to be aggressive and so forth?
Stewart: “I don’t think it’s me on track that has given me the two strikes, I think it’s the way I’ve handled things off the track that has given me those strikes. Just like the deal at Chicago, NASCAR thought I did something wrong, they would of done something obviously. I talked to NASCAR, Kasey talked to NASCAR, their explanation of what happened in what they showed me backed up exactly what I said happened. I stuck to my guns saying I didn’t do anything wrong. The reason I did that was because I didn’t do anything wrong. At the same time if I do something off the track I know I’ve got those two strikes on me already. This is not the deals to go through as a driver. It’s not just about driving race cars any more, that’s the way up to this point it’s always been. Now, we’re representing multi billion dollar companies that we have a TV package and NASCAR is very image conscious now which they haven’t always been. Driving the race car which is what I got hired to do in the first place and what I have been doing the past 25 years of my life is only a fractional part of my overall job as a Nextel Cup driver. There’s a lot more changes that go on in your life than the media could understand in one conversation. It’s something you really have to be behind the scenes, you need to live it and breathe for more than a day or two or a week to fully understand what all is involved in it.”
I wanted to touch on the fact about J.D.’s job that he’s gone over the first half of the season. What I was also interested to hear from you how you felt when Joe announced that he was leaving after all the speculation about you leaving the team and then he got you fined and you stayed there with Home Depot. Did you feel in anyway betrayed when Joe decided to go back to football?
Stewart: “Absolutely not, I never liked Joe that much anyways. (laughing) I mean that’s kind of been my joke all along. I wish I could have had a closed camera when Joe told myself and Greg Zipadelli and Jimmy Makar. We were actually at the test in Daytona and Joe had called us and asked us to a meeting. My first reaction when Zippy had told me that we had a meeting coming up, well I just re-signed my contract so I’m not getting fired. Then I looked at Zippy and he said well I just re-signed mine. We realized that he wasn’t going to get fired and then we looked at Jimmy and Jimmy said I haven’t re-signed mine yet so we thought Jimmy was getting fired, we didn’t know what was going on. After a long day of testing and all of us trying to sit there and most of the time somebody knows the contents of the meeting are going to be about before we get there. Jimmy being the team manager now, Jimmy didn’t know what it was about, Zippy didn’t know, I had no clue what it was about so when we met J.D. and Joe at the airport and you know it was pretty much self explanatory when he walked us out to the Redskins plane and we see the Redskins helmet on the tail of the airplane. We went in there to have the meeting and it was pretty self explanatory before we even sat down what was actually going to happen. Everybody could’ve seen the expression on Joe’s face and the way he explained it. He was like a 6 year old boy coming down the stairs on Christmas morning to open presents. It was the neatest expression, it was the neatest look. I’m proud of him I didn’t feel betrayed at all. I would never feel betrayed for someone following their dreams, their desires and passions. I don’t think anybody could’ve held that against him. I’m very supportive of him doing that. Joe is at the point of this life where he could be enjoying his family and his grand babies and he loves the game of golf and he could be doing that seven days a week spending time with his family as much as he wants to. Not have to deal with the headaches and hassles of being with me or the NFL or any of that. He’s very passionate about racing; he’s very passionate about the NFL. I know he’ll give it 110% like he always had. I’m very proud of him and seeing Joe be in the position he’s in and having that desire to go back and put in those grueling hours that he’ll have.”
Does the new points system actually favor a situation like the one you have where you didn’t get out to a strong start, but now in a few months you’ll be able to jump in there and start from fresh.
Stewart: “Not necessarily, if you think about it. I’m not sure if last year or two years ago when we won the championship. After 26 races either last year or two years ago we weren’t even in the top 10 in points. Getting off to a slow start can get you into a deficit that 26 races wouldn’t be enough to get out of where 36 would. If you can get yourself in that top 10 I think it helps. We still have to have a good front half of the season just to get ourselves in that position. It can work against or for you, depending on how good or bad we start the season.”
Have you and Zippy discussed how aggressive you want to be in those final ten races?
Stewart: “No, I think we look at those last 10 just like any other ten. You look at it like any other championship year. You still go with the attitudes that we’re going to win the race. Those last ten races you’re really going to be racing nine other guys in all reality so even though there are 43 cars running the race each week and as much as you want to win the race I think you will pay more attention to those particular nine teams and drivers than the rest of the field.”
Tony how do you feel about the title of NASCAR bad boy and not being able to get way from that?
Stewart: “It’s just a title, it really doesn’t affect me. I think you guys are the ones that created that so how do you feel about it?
“This year I think some things have been blown out of proportion some what.”
Stewart: “I agree, but I think it’s what adds character to our sport. You look at wrestling and you had all the popular guys quote un quote the good guys in the sport and you had them wrestling each other each week, I’m not sure it would be as appealing to the fans as if you got somebody that people like and somebody that they dislike. So I think that adds flavor to the sport. I don’t really take it personal, I don’t think it’s a personal deal; it’s just a title that’s given to many of us. I guess I lead the pack of the bad boy group. I think there are fans out there that are looking for that guy. Dale Earnhardt didn’t get his reputation or popularity by being a good guy. He got it by being aggressive and he was probably the bad boy in his era. So I don’t think it’s such a bad thing after all.”
What do you think about the chase opening up the field rather than one driver building up a 300 or 400 lead and running away with things?
Stewart: “It’s just like anything, its security of change. For so many years now the Cup series was winning the title was based on the guy who has the most points in 36 races and was the most consistent. It’s just a change in time and I’m not really sure if my opinion counts in the equation any more; especially when I’m not part of the decision. I’m not sure it really matters how I feel about it. It is what it is right now and I think it could be a positive thing for our sport. I can see where I had ideas where it could be a negative to it but we’re going to sit back and wait and see what happens. I’m not sure if any of us like it or dislike it, we can’t do anything about it at this point, just ride it out and see how it works out.”
How important was it for you to get a win before this chase for the championship started. I imagine you wanted to go in knowing you could win a race?
Stewart: “I think we’ve won enough races to know that we could win races. I’m not sure that we had to do that before the last 10 weeks to have the confidence or anything, there’s no guarantees each week. The odds of winning a race each week are 1 and 43. Anytime you win obviously, it’s great, but I don’t think it adds any pressure if you haven’t won a race. If you run 2nd in every race in those last ten races you’re beyond a shadow of a doubt you’re going to win the championship. I don’t think there are any standard things that you have to win a race. It’s a nice feeling; obviously, it’s a big boost for the team. More than anything to win a race and that’s out goal every week and to finally attain that once this year is great. Even though, we’re on a just a big of a high as finishing 5th at Loudon this weekend; knowing that we put together 4 weeks in a row with top 5 finishes. That’s probably as important to us as winning a single event is. I’m not sure that it’s a huge importance, still every week when we show up at the track that’s what our number one goal is to win the race.”
As you go through a season like you have with being involved in this controversy. Does it come to a point where you can go back to the days where you can drive midgets, sprint cars, and not worry about everything that’s going on like this?
Stewart: “No, not necessarily. I think there are days that I’m frustrated and I feel that way, but I think there are more days that I wake up and it just doesn’t bother me anymore. We’ve been through so much controversy in my whole career in the Cup series, anymore I’m just kind of numb to it all I guess so to speak. It’s not a distraction to me; it’s not an aggravation to me. I’ve found a way to simplify everything and not worry about it. Controversy is controversy; it’s just something for people to read in the paper and something for them to talk about. When I’m in the race car I mean my job is to go out and win the race and that’s what my passion and desire is whether it’s in a midget or in a sprint car or in the Nextel Cup car. To be honest, the controversy and having the controversial season, I’ve pretty numb to all that now.”
A lot of people speak highly of some of things that you’ve done for people. Why is it important for you to remain a part of the lives of these people when it would be easier for people to forget about them on their climb to the top.
Stewart: “I guess it was just the way I was brought up. I don’t think any of us get anywhere solely by ourselves, especially not the sport of auto racing. There’s always been people to give a break here or there or get a start. The thing I’ve learned the most about auto racing versus any of the professional sports it’s all focused on individual accomplishments a lot of times and I guess what I’ve learned in auto racing is that even though I’m the one that gets awards at the of the race if we win. I truly understand according to the people that make it happen and I could be the best race car driver in the world, but if I don’t have the support from other teams and car owners along the way to help me get here I don’t think I would of ever gotten here. I guess it’s about what you learn and it’s all about people and relationships with people and I’ve been very fortunate to be surrounded all my life with a lot of good people I’ve met, a lot of good people across the country in racing. I guess you’re right, it would be easy to turn your back on those people, it’s just not how I’m made, the people that have helped me. I get the same satisfaction as being able to help those people back now and completing the circle and knowing that how important they are in my life, I’m able to be an important part in their life in a different aspect. I guess that’s why I still do that. ”
As you dad made his Silver Crown debut at Milwaukee last weekend. What did that mean to you to see him do that and were you able to go there or were you waiting on the cell phone call to see how he did?
Stewart: “I found out after the race was over. He was alright, that was the most important thing. I haven’t’ been exactly supportive of that, but I’m glad from everyone else said he wasn’t able to wipe the grin off his face all day and that’s probably the important thing knowing that he enjoyed himself. To be honest, I was more concerned about his safety. I wasn’t very confident that he should be doing that, but the fact the he got through it all right and that he had a good time and enjoyed it. If he wants to continue doing that, I’m behind him 100%, but in the back of my mind I’m not supportive of it. I’m really concerned about my 65 year old father driving open wheeled cars nowadays.”
Have you thought of yourself changing or questioning your driving style being under the microscope this year like driving in the corners. Do you want to back off or are there any time you question your driving ability?
Stewart: “No, not at all, to be honest if you’re asking if I’m evaluating myself while I’m driving. After 25 years of this and the races that we’ve won and the championships that we won I think my style speaks for itself; being put under the microscope that’s nothing that’s new to us. It’s not something that we’ve been accustomed before the last 5 years. We’ve never had any problems until recently. As far as me regarding my ability or questioning my style, I don’t do that at all. I don’t ever intend on changing that style, I think it’s my personality, I think everyone has their own personality and everybody has their own style. I don’t think we sit there at the beginning of our career saying this is the kind of style, driver I want to be. I think that just the way it happens; it’s just the way we drive. It’s not something that you really can sit there and change it.”
Now with the chase for the championship would you like to see the different tracks in the next couple years with a road course in there and stuff like that?
Stewart: “The only thing I want them to add is two dirt races to the schedule. We’ve got two road courses, there is plenty high quality dirt tracks around. We could run two dirt races on the schedule if we could run two road courses. I’d like to see that happen.”
When you first broke into that series (USAC) how viable a career path did competitors see NASCAR and when did it start to change? Is USAC becoming a pipeline into NASCAR as in the last decade or so.
Stewart: “Obviously Jeff Gordon probably was the biggest influence on all of our guys focusing on that direction when Jeff had his success in USAC. Jeff won a lot of races in USAC, he wasn’t just handed an opportunity in NASCAR. He earned his way down there. When Jeff won his championship and won all the races that he won and had the success he had in USAC, when he got his opportunity to go down to NASCAR and run and opened up a lot of opportunities for other drivers and obviously with the TV packages that USAC had at the time with the Thursday night Thunder series, it brought guys from all across the country. There are so many different sanctioning bodies of midgets and sprint cars, now that USAC series really became a focus for our open wheel drivers. We have drivers coming from Pennsylvania, California, Colorado, Wisconsin, Illinois, guys that normally didn’t support the USAC National Series and saw all those races. A lot of them came and started participating in a lot more of those event because of Jeff’s success and Jeff getting that opportunity to come to NASCAR. I’m not sure, I think everybody looks that way anyway, and the Indy car option wasn’t an option at the time unless you brought a big dollar sponsor and really nobody had help or a short track driver in Indianapolis for a long time so I think everybody’s eyes were already pointed in the direction of NASCAR. I think when Jeff had his success down south, it just helped boost everybody’s spirits and helped show everybody in USAC that it was a reality and it could happen again as easily as it happened to Jeff if they had the same kind of results on the race track.”
Tony, who’s in USAC now to look out for who might be the next couple of guys that are going to make that move into NASCAR?
Stewart: “I think it’s kind of in a rebuilding stage right now but I think there’s going to be guys that we’ll see down south if the opportunities come for them. I think one of the will be Bobby Yeast, one of them will be one of the young guys that I got in my USAC Midget which is Josh Weiss. Those two guys in particular are young guys that will trend to NASCAR. Car owners are looking into really young drivers and I think those are two guys that are going to be predominant names coming up in the next two to three years.”
People talk about the comparison with Dale Earnhardt sometimes. What do you think will make the transition of you for gaining that respect as one of the bad boys to the kind of popular bad boy that everybody sort of likes to see race aggressively?
Stewart: “I think we already have a group of hands who are already in line with that. I can promise you one thing. I am not trying to be Dale Earnhardt. I respect that man more than anybody in racing other than A.J. Foyt and his accomplishments came on the run. There’s nobody that’s ever going to be another Dale Earnhardt. The closest one to be Dale Earnhardt is Dale Earnhardt, Jr. That’s not something that I have my eyes set on trying to be like. I would love to be as successful as he’s been and would love to have the fan following that Dale Sr. had. I think we already have a fan following that likes us for the way we speak our mind and we’re aggressive on the racetrack. That’s the kind of fans that we attract nowadays. I think there’s plenty of them out there. If you look out there on Sunday, you look at the amount of orange in the stands, I think that speaks for itself and tells the story.”
Can you clarify without me going into too many details, once and for all, what did happen in Chicago and do you think some people say that you were a little too aggressive on that restart? Do you think you were too aggressive?
Stewart: “I don’t think I was too aggressive. Everybody knows how important track position is on those mile and a half tracks and how difficult at times it can be to pass with the aero situation that we are in. Getting a pass like I did when I passed Sterling (Marlin) I got right back in line and slowed down and NASCAR was the one that pointed out to me before I fully knew it that I was running the same speed that Sterling was running and the same speed that Brian Vickers who was on the lap down line in the inside. I was running the same speed as those two guys. I wasn’t being too aggressive. I think Kasey and I need to finish our discussion before I really feel comfortable talking about it. I think there is more to the story than was actually told and I think Kasey is the only one who can tell that story.”
I want to get your thoughts on the rule that lets an injured driver start a race and a relief driver come in for the starting driver and gets the points. Do you have thoughts on that? Is the system fine the way it is or anyways to be made better?
Stewart: “I don’t have a problem with the way it is. We’re on our way to a photo shoot today, what if a guy in a semi blows a red light and I get in a car accident? If they say the injury takes two weeks to heal, should I lose everything that we have worked for all year because of something that was out of our control. Whether it’s something that happens at another race. Whether it’s something that happens in our everyday life. I think it’s fair. I think the system is fair for everybody that way. There’s nothing that would’ve kept Dale Jr. from running the whole race. He’s going to be in a lot of pain and a lot of discomfort and I think we all look at it from the standpoint that next week it could be us that could be in that situation and we’re all a big family. I think all of would of probably not been disappointed if there would have been a caution in the first five laps so we could’ve got Dale out of the car and taken some of the pain away from him from that standpoint. I don’t think it’s anything that needs to be changed. I think the fans are pretty sympathetic to what’s going on there too. I’ll be honest, that’s the first I’ve ever heard anybody ask this question. I think it’s a legitimate question with the way NASCAR is changing, but I don’t think this is anything that needs to be changed. I hope it doesn’t change. I think it’s very fair. If the driver is willing to deal with that much pain and get in the car and start the race and know that he could have a problem and extend his injuries so to speak, if the driver is willing to do that then he ought to be compensated with the points for it also.”
Do you think it’s good because it gives the driver an out to maybe don’t push themselves too far in a race if they are in pain like Junior was?
Stewart: “Good point. You bring up a very valid point. The pain that I’m sure he was in, I’m sure it had to be a distraction to him at some point. So, if it’s a distraction to him then it’s not that it’s going to put everybody else in danger but it could be a distraction that could cause him a problem and somebody could get caught up in that problem. I think there is a lot of good points on why that system in place is the way it is.”
You told me over the last couple of years that you almost dread coming to Indianapolis because it turns into such a zoo for you here. With that race coming up again, is the dread starting to set in again or is it something that you are able to look forward to at least a little bit?
Stewart: “I’m looking forward to it. As much as I get the highs of the highs and the lows of the lows, it’s a week that I always look forward to. Even though it’s a drag sometimes, from the media side it’s a much busier weekend than I want to have with the media attention that we get there. Being from Indiana, there’s no way to get around that. I’m not sure it’s totally a bad thing. At the same time, I get to see my family and friends and get to see people that I don’t get a chance to see but a couple times a year. Yeah, more so this year, I’m probably looking forward to more than ever have in the past. I feel like we’ve got a pretty good game plan based on balance and doing media obligations and the attention and being able to do the things that we want to do.”
In the wake of what happened with Dale Jr. or assuming what could’ve happened with Dale Jr., does it give you any second thoughts about some of the other extracurricular racing activities? Should it give you second thoughts with your responsibility to give and responsibility to Home Depot? Is it something a driver should think about?
Stewart: “I don’t think so, to be honest. There will be more deaths on the highway today than there will be at any other racetracks this weekend. Does that mean we shouldn’t drive on the highway today? That’s kind of the attitude I look at. Accidents are exactly what they’re labeled as, they’re accidents. They don’t happen because people are looking for something to happen. It’s just something that happens. If you look at the big picture of what we’re talking about here, we’re talking about each other’s life. We don’t get to put our life on pause, we don’t get to come back and redo the part that we waited on. I honestly feel like we need to live every day to the fullest. If driver want to race, they should be able to race. If they get into an agreement with a car owner and that agreement doesn’t allow them to do that, a tleast they know that going into it and they have the option to agree to that agreement or to not sign that agreement. That’s something that has been very important to me, if I want to go race and I don’t feel that’s a right that anybody should take away from us by any means. Obviously, I continue to sign contracts with Joe Gibbs, obviously it’s a concern with Joe but at the same time he’s never told me that I can’t go drive race cars. He understands that’s a passion and desire of mine and it’s a part of my life that he’s not willing to take away from me.”
Pocono has always been a bit of a fuel mileage track. Given the new rule with the potential for a green white checker finish, how do you think that might impact the race more being a fuel mileage race at Pocono at the fact the might be running a couple extra laps there.
Stewart: “I think it takes some of the fuel mileage racing out of the equation. Reason being, everybody there knows exactly how many laps they can go. Under the old format, you didn’t know how many laps over the advertised distance that we would be going. You knew that if it was a 300 lap race, and if you can run 100 laps on a tank of fuel, you knew that if you pitted on lap 200 or 201 you could make it to the end. Now you don’t know that. I think guys will be pitting later in the deal and making sure they have plenty of fuel depending on how many caution laps will happen after that. I think in all reality, I think it will take some of fuel mileage equation out of it, hopefully. I might be wrong, but I hope so.”
On the SAFER barriers that are going to be installed there, they’re only in Turn 1 in the June race, is that going to have any effect and what do you think about the SAFER barriers that they are installing at all of the tracks.
Stewart: “I’m fully in favor of the SAFER barriers. Like we were talking about earlier, accidents are accidents. Nobody intends for them to happen. It’s part of our sport and if we can either extend driver’s careers by taking away career threatening injuries or even the possibility of death due to injury, you can never say any negatives about it. I’m all in favor of it. How will affect the weekend at Pocono? It’s hard to say. It didn’t change the way we raced the first weekend obviously. It just depends on how far they typically extend the exit of the corner. It’s normally not an issue going into the corner but some of the tracks they have extended it 20 or 30 feet, a little longer than what they needed it to be in some cases. We’ll have to wait and see when we get there. I’m sure they did a fine job doing what they did.”
Did the thought of going to a three car team trouble you in the least from the standpoint of the depth of your team right now and the resources potentially being diverted from your effort?
Stewart: “I don’t think so. I guess the easiest way to describe it if you have a one car team and if one and one equals two, it’s not one and one and one equals three. You don’t have to have three times the equipment. A lot of times you can utilize the same resources and not necessarily have to have so many extras, so to speak. Perfect example is our USAC teams. Last year we had two drivers on our sprint car teams and on our pavement we only had three cars. Both of the drivers primary cars and had one back up car. We didn’t have to have a back up car for each driver but if you do one, then you have to one back up driver for that car. It’s sometimes cheaper to add cars to the equation. I think that’s why Jack Roush, he’s probably the first guy to realize the more that he added, the more he could share his resources and make it better and not necessarily drain those resources. If you have adequate resources the cars will definitely help, but if you’re a team that doesn’t have enough funding to begin with your sponsorship, it can be a distraction and can do what you’re talking about and can take away from the effort too.”
Any preference if you were to get a veteran type driver such as yourself, or someone who could use some molding (a younger driver)?
Stewart: “No, I think you have to look at it in different ways. Obviously, most people’s initial reaction would be to get a veteran that has experience but you look at the case with Joe Gibbs Racing. Bobby Labonte was the one that pushed to hire me and I honestly didn’t feel like I had enough experience when I started. He had more confidence in me than I had in myself at the time. I wanted to make sure beyond the shadow of a doubt that I was ready and Bobby saw something in me that I wasn’t able to see in myself at that time as far as driving a stock car was concerned. We came into the season our rookie year and broke a record for winning the most races as a rookie. I think there’s pros and cons for having veterans and there’s pros and cons for having rookies. Rookies bring no bad habits normally to the table, they come with fresh ideas. With the taste of having Greg Zipadelli as a rookie crew chief, you work at starting a pattern. He had his own ideas as a crew chief and I think that’s the way drivers are too. It really could go either way. You could get a young guy and be just fine or you can have a veteran and be just fine also.”
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