Tony Stewart on NASCAR NEXTEL CUP Teleconference
Written by John Davison · August 3, 2006
This week, Tony Stewart, defending series champion and defending champion of the Brickyard 400 was the guest on the NASCAR NEXTEL CUP teleconference. He discussed racing, younger drivers, going fishing with Ryan Newman and his move back to the family home in Columbus, Indiana. Here, thanks to NASCAR, is the transcript of Stewart’s part of the teleconference.
MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to this week’s NASCAR Nextel teleconference in advance of Sunday’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the fifth event in the Race to the Chase, the 10 races that precede the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup.
Tony, thanks for taking the time to join the call today, especially from your event benefiting Riley Hospital for Children. Thanks a lot.
TONY STEWART: My pleasure.
MODERATOR: For the first time, you’re returning to Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a defending race champion. How special is that to you?
TONY STEWART: It’s very special, obviously. I think more so than just being special, though, it’s making this week a very relaxed week where last year was a very tense and stressful week. I think for the first time we’re actually going to be able to go there and the first time in history, actually kind of relax and have fun with it this week. I’m looking forward to a good weekend.
MODERATOR: With the number of guests involved and with media on our call today, we ask that our media limit your questions to Tony to two. If you have further questions, go ahead and re queue, and we’ll do what we can to get back to you.
Now we’ll go to questions from our media with our reigning Series Champion, Tony Stewart.
Q. The circumstances overall at Pocono notwithstanding, you seemed to have a car that ran awfully good there despite the battering it took. Do you think the Run well at Pocono, Run well at Indy Theory applies here? Do you feel good about the way your car was, and does it apply to Indy?
TONY STEWART: I hope it does. I’m not sure if it still works that way or not, to be honest. We hope it does, obviously. Our car worked really good there.
I think the pack seems to be working at places like Pocono and Indy, are very similar, but I’m not sure if it’s a dead nuts telltale that it’s going to be exactly that way.
I think the same suspects run in the top 10, and that’s probably where the winner is going to come out of, or somebody that ran in the top 10 all day. I think it’s close. I don’t know if it’s exactly the way it used to be the last couple years where everybody knew for sure that that’s pretty much the case.
Q. One other thing about Pocono. Sort of similar to the situation that happened with Matt at Daytona where you seemed to have a very, very good car in the Daytona 500 and ended up going to the back of the line because of the incident with Matt, are you in any way focusing on these sudden instincts of payback or whatever, and that they’re costing you, or do you feel like you just got to race the way you know how to race?
TONY STEWART: I mean, you got to race the way you know how to race, but at the same time, I mean, knowing what the penalties are for actions definitely are weighing into our mind in the future as far as what we’re going to do and how we’re going to handle situations.
You know, I think we’ve kind of learned from situations if something happens, you make your adjustments accordingly. I don’t think you’ll see any of that this weekend at the Brickyard.
Q. The Brickyard, you know, this is like your home race. It’s a race that has meant a lot to you. I just want to know, what would it be like to be there on Victory Lane again this year for you?
TONY STEWART: Just like last year.
Q. Okay. And this year, you know, things have been a little bumpier road this summer than it was last year when you really took off here in Sonoma and kept going. What’s been the mood on your team this summer?
TONY STEWART: It’s been about the same. I mean, obviously, we’re not on the high streak that we were last year at this time. But the good thing is that our cars are all driving really well. The performance on track has been great. The finishes haven’t exactly been exactly where we want it, but at least the way we’re running on the racetrack has been very well. We’ve all been excited from that standpoint. I think everybody’s morale is still as high as it was last year, just we’re not on that emotional high that we’ve been on from winning back to back races before the Brickyard.
Q. I was just wondering, you’ve had kind of an up and down time this past season. Right now, do you feel like you guys have a solid shot at moving up a few spots in the ranking, and is it too soon to have a sense of urgency with six races to go before the Chase?
TONY STEWART: You know, in all honesty, we just take it a race at a time. I mean, that’s, I think, the only way you can take it because you can’t predict anything that’s going to happen or how things are going to work. I think you always have to just take it, you know, one race at a time.
You know, our attitude and approach has always just been go out and try to win the race. And if you win the race, the points take care of itself. So if we can go out and do that, we don’t have to worry about the rest of it.
As far as we’re concerned, it’s just a matter of going out and doing what we do every week and trying to, you know, get ourselves in a position to win every single week that we go on the racetrack.
Q. I’m working a week ahead for Watkins Glen. Could you just explain, you know, how you came about becoming so, like, dominant on road courses? You’ve come from an oval racing background. Is there something that clicked for you a few years ago? Can you explain to me why you feel so comfortable out there.
TONY STEWART: Well, I mean, like today, we’re at Newcastle at the Go Cart track that Mark built. Mark was very instrumental in my racing career in Go Carts. I won a national championship on road courses driving Go Carts for him and his father’s Go Cart shop.
I think my carting background even though, you know, as far as full size cars, you didn’t see a lot of road racing in my background the fact that I did race Go Carts taught me a lot about road course racing. It was just a matter of learning and adapting to a 3,400 pound car on a road course.
I never had to shift gears when I ran the Go Carts. Just took a while learning what to do shifting gears to figure out what we had to do to be fast.
Q. You guys have a pretty strong road racing program. Other teams have also played catchup over the years. This is only two races a year you guys go road course racing. How important is it to Gibbs and the other teams to do well, even if it’s only two races?
TONY STEWART: Everybody’s always practicing before Sonoma to get ready. A lot of the teams go to VIR to practice and test and try different things to make their programs better.
So whether you’re a team that’s already had road course success and feel like you’re on top of the game, or whether it’s a team that feels like they’re struggling just to get on par on the road courses, everybody’s testing to prepare for it, so it’s obviously a big deal to everybody.
Q. We’ve heard you talk about this being your “hell week” before and how you’re besieged by virtually everybody you’ve ever known in Indianapolis. I’m wondering, does that part of it get easier now that you’ve won this thing? Is that part of the stress that you’ve been able to ease back now that you’re defending champion?
TONY STEWART: That, and I think we cut our schedule back. I mean, last year we had so many appearances. I think we had three different interviews at my house, different interviews where we were running around, different locations. This year we’re not doing any of that. I mean, we’re just sticking to our normal weekly race schedule.
So I think, you know, cutting back on our schedule this week, plus the fact that we have won the race, I think that’s taken a lot of the pressure off. It’s definitely made for a lot more enjoyable week. Like I say, I’m doing this charity event at Newcastle for Riley Children’s Hospital. I’ve got a Home Depot appearance tonight. Tomorrow, if everything works out right in Ryan’s schedule, Ryan Newman and I are going to go down to my property and fish for the afternoon. Then I’ve got Silver Crown race tomorrow night.
We’ve tried to make our schedule as streamlined as possible, and trying to fit in some fun things like taking Ryan fishing to our lake tomorrow, just trying to find some fun things that we can plug into our schedule to kind of keep us grounded and let us enjoy the week.
I’m excited about this week. I mean, I think it’s probably the best that we’ve done and probably the easiest schedule that we’ve had. It starts today, obviously, but, you know, we don’t have so many things on the schedule that, you know, we don’t have time to ourselves to do personal things that will give us a chance to relax. So I think it’s gonna be a fun week.
Q. I think it’s kind of cool that you’re going fishing with Ryan Newman. Can you talk about how that came about? There was talk in the garage that years ago drivers could hang out and tell stories and lean on the tires and really get to know each other before and after races. Now you’re all so booked up, there’s not a lot of time to do stuff like hang out with Ryan Newman anymore.
TONY STEWART: Yeah, I mean, Ryan has got an appearance tomorrow in southern Indiana and then he’s going back up to Indianapolis. Where I live in Columbus, Indiana, is right on the way. It just works out great. I mean, Ryan likes to fish. I love fishing. Last two months, my lake got stocked. And, you know, we always talk about our fishing sprees. Just got together with Ryan. If everything works out right tomorrow, we’ll both get to go together and get a chance to take him out there.
But, you know, a lot of us do try to do things together. I’m real close with Kevin Harvick. We try to do things together whenever we have a chance. I’ve been on the Kyle Petty Charity Ride and rode with Matt and Katie Kenseth, and Michelle Green and Matt (indiscernible) guys.
When we have times in our schedule that our schedules mesh together and we’re in the same areas, we do like to do things with each other because we’re around each other all the time but, like you say, most of the time our schedules don’t work out to where that can happen for us.
Ryan and I being from Indiana and everything, it’s a good opportunity for us. And if he gets busy and can’t do it tomorrow, we’ll find another time where we can. We’ll get a chance to get him out there for sure
Q. What are you fishing for? Are you setting up the tackle box, or is he?
TONY STEWART: I’m keeping my secret weapon lures in case he gets a lead on me with how many fish he catches. I’ll keep track of that.
No, he’ll have the same stuff we’ve got, basically. It’s not as competitive as it is with the racing. We’ll have fun with it. The good thing is we’ve already got rods and reels lined up for him in case he doesn’t bring his own. We’ve got lures that we know are going to catch fish tomorrow. Big thing is just to make sure that he has a good time, he relaxes tomorrow, and has fun.
Q. The list of winners at the Brickyard is pretty much the A List of drivers over the years. What is it about the Brickyard or this race in general that allows the team to rise to the top?
TONY STEWART: I don’t know. I mean, I just think the teams treat it just like they do or pretty much like they do the Daytona 500. I think it’s just one of those racetracks that the marquee teams and marquee drivers always seem to do well at. It’s a very technical track even though, you know, you look at it and you think it’s just four 90 degree corners, it’s just a very technical track depending on wind, heat and track conditions. It seems like the best of the best always end up kind of rising to the top with that race.
Q. My question for you is this. Do you expect that when you get to the Speedway and you walk in that it’s going to feel a whole lot different for you having, you know, gotten a win there, something that you’ve wanted your whole life, versus showing up and still trying to go for it? Is it just going to feel really good to you and really special, and, you know, take a few minutes to enjoy being a defending winner?
TONY STEWART: I know it’s going to be different. I know it’s going to be a fun feeling. When we went there for the open test, it was a totally different feeling than in the past when we’ve been there. That’s why I’m, you know, 100% sure that it’s going to be a fun weekend no matter what the outcome is, just knowing that we won that race, knowing that we’re the defending champion going into it this year, and have had the crown for a year, so to speak.
Still, at the end of the day, no matter we win, lose, draw, when I go home Sunday night, I still got my trophy there from last year’s win. I know it’s going to make it a lot more fun this weekend. Just not having to answer the question all weekend of what would it feel like to win is going to be huge. Having that pressure from the media side was always as much of the stress as anything. Not having to answer that question this year, you know, because we won it last year is going to take a lot of that pressure off right away.
Q. Where do you have your trophy? Is it somewhere more special than the others?
TONY STEWART: No, it’s sitting right beside my Winston Cup trophy and my Nextel Cup trophy. My three most prized possessions are there together.
Q. Which room are they in?
TONY STEWART: They’re in my living room, family room, whatever you want to call it.
Q. Your on track influence has been brought into question. Your temper and attitude on the track is similar to a few years ago when there were some issues. How do you respond to that?
TONY STEWART: I don’t. I mean, it’s just, you know, something we don’t respond to. It’s a changing time in NASCAR. There’s rookies in the Series that are trying to change it, the way that we race, and we’re not going to do that. So, you know, I guess we just don’t respond to it.
Q. I understand your role of trying to be a teacher in some situations like that. Do you feel at times you’re viewed as a dinosaur, that other drivers aren’t supporting you and teaching the rookies that way, or is there enough support out there to teach these rookies?
TONY STEWART: I think more than anything, you know, everybody hates change and everybody hates controversy in this Series because of the situation I’m in right now, having to talk about it all the time. You know, trust me, I’m not the only driver that’s thinking the way that I’ve had to talk about the last few weeks. The other drivers just kind of let it go because they don’t want to have to be in the middle of the controversy. I’ve always been one that spoke my mind.
It’s like last week and it’s like we said in our press release Monday, I mean, Clint Bowyer didn’t cause the wreck, I caused the wreck, but there were circumstances that led up to it that could have been avoided also.
You know, it’s a learning thing for everybody else. You know, I committed the crime. I paid the (indiscernible) that went on afterwards. Like I said, there was a lot that went on after that, too, that went on that a lot of people didn’t talk about. It’s funny from our standpoint how selective people are about who they write about and who they don’t.
Q. Tony, I got to see the movie last night “Talladega Nights,” the Ricky Bobby story. I was wondering, Dale Junior had a cameo in that thing. I was wondering, were you close to being in the movie? What do you think about the movie even though it kind of presents some stereotypes? It seems like NASCAR has given it its blessing and are laughing with their selves along with everyone else?
TONY STEWART: I mean, from everything that we’ve seen on the commercials, it’s going to be an awesome movie. It is a comedy. You look at all kinds of comedy movies. There’s situations in society that’s getting poked fun at. I think NASCAR is thick skinned, take it for what it is, and that it’s something that’s supposed to entertain people. Still, at the end of the day, it brings NASCAR racing into people’s minds.
I wasn’t approached about it. I’m excited to see it. I’m excited to see, you know. I was just talking to somebody while I was on my way to the cart track here today. We were talking about going on Friday to see it. I’m as excited as everybody else is to see it come out.
Q. I know you talked about this earlier in the season, being the senior guy on the Gibbs Racing team. Could you talk about the development, obviously, Denny Hamlin has done. J.J. Yeley has had better finishes lately. Is he catching up to Denny?
TONY STEWART: Hope so. I mean, it’s not a competition between the teams, but, you know, obviously Denny has won three races this year with the two at Pocono and the Bud Shootout at Daytona. He’s had a great year, obviously.
And J.J., it’s taking him a little more time to get used to the cars, but I think his progress is coming along real well, too.
This isn’t something that you look at and you say, you know, in six months it’s got to be at the top of his game. You know, it’s that competitive, the Series is, these days, but if you look at how far they have both come along, obviously Denny has really come along real well in a short amount of time. J.J. is starting to come around, too.
I think from both ends of it, I think we’re really pleased with the way both drivers are developing.
Q. Having raced in two difference disciplines, Indy cars and now NASCAR, what is it you’ve learned in each one and what has given you an advantage? And after winning last year, does that give you an advantage this year?
TONY STEWART: I wish I could say it did, but it doesn’t. I mean, every year is a different year. Technology changes. Setups change, you know, and improve. Just because you’re successful the year before at a racetrack doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful this year at the same racetrack.
But, you know, driving the Indy cars there, there’s absolutely nothing I took away from Indy car racing at the Brickyard that helps me at stock. It’s kind of comparing apples to oranges. They’re really, on the spectrum of auto racing, they’re really on total opposite ends from each other. Just two different styles of driving and two different approaches per division.
Q. Do you think that explains why there’s only been two repeat winners of that race in particular?
TONY STEWART: I just think it’s kind of like the Daytona 500. It’s just a tough race to win. I mean, you have to be on 100%. If you’re a little bit off, that track is so technical that if you’re a little bit off, it shows up very big because it has four corners versus two. It just seems like the guys that have that good day and really hit that pack as far as setup is concerned, that’s why it’s so hard. With it changing every year it seems like, setups for that style of track have changed so drastically over the last two or three years, I think that’s part of the reason you haven’t seen but two or three guys that have been repeat winners.
Q. Going back to the aggressive attitude and lack of patience, how much different is it this year than in past years? Is it getting more aggressive and less patient as the season goes on?
TONY STEWART: Well, I think with the competition getting closer and closer, it makes everybody more impatient inherently. But at the same time, I think what the situation is, is that you got young guys that have great amounts of talent that deserve the rides that they’re in. But when you got in lower rides and got into the Series luckily, I was one of the drivers that was at the kind of front edge of this trend that’s going on now you know, drivers before me kind of had to run mediocre cars or mid packed cars and you learned a lot about give and take and the patience it took to run 500 mile races.
Now, you got these young guys. The age keeps getting younger and younger. You can’t blame them; they’re 19 , 20 , 21 year old drivers that want to go out and they got cars and talent that can win them races. But the style of racing, being 500 mile races, some of these short tracks that are 500 laps, they don’t realize what happens in the first hundred miles or first laps of the race really doesn’t mean anything, you’re just really working on your car and trying to work on your equipment and get yourself in a position at the end of the race to win.
It’s a problem that’s getting worse. At the same time, I mean, hopefully we won’t have many more instances like we had at Pocono to try to show these guys that, hey, you got to be patient. I mean, you can sit and talk to them all day long, but sometimes it takes more than that once in a while.
Q. Do you think if NASCAR cracked down once in a while you wouldn’t have to execute frontier justice on them?
TONY STEWART: I think so, you know. But at the same time, I mean, it’s like NASCAR’s always said, the drivers kind of police themselves. That’s where, you know, it kind of gets a little hairy at times. I mean, I think I went a little overboard at Pocono for sure on my side of it, but, you know, I was frustrated that I got pushed in the wall. Even though the damage wasn’t much, it was just the idea that we shouldn’t have had to be in that position that early in the race.
Like we said earlier, I want to make sure everybody understands that I’m changing what I I guess it sounded a little different than what I may have said. Clint Bowyer was not the one that caused the accident; I was the one that caused the accident, but stuff with Clint was what led up to it. Just making sure that everybody understands that we’re not blaming; I take full responsibility for it.
Q. Does your mentality change from when you’re outside of a race car to when you’re inside the race car? And if so, how? Outside of the race car, inside the race car, it seems like you’re almost two different people?
TONY STEWART: You’re competitive. I mean, I’m competitive when I’m outside the car, too. That’s what I do for a living and that’s my job, is doing what I do on Sundays. You know, I don’t know if you’re into competitive sports at all, but when you’re in any kind of competitive sport, I mean, you’re obviously a different person than you are when you’re out with your family. It’s not that you’re two different people, it’s just, you know, we’re in a sport where you have to be aggressive and you have to be emotional about what you do, and that’s what we do.
Q. When you talk about patience for rookies, the other side of that equation is when you used to come into the sport, they gave you three or four years to prove your level. Now, if you’re 20 years old, 25 years old, 35 years old, you got a first rate car, people expect you to win, guys have their lost jobs. Can you talk at least about what factor that is. I know you understand all that. But does it factor into that impatience these guys are showing? Is that a factor of the pressure they’re under, too?
TONY STEWART: I think so, but I think it goes back to using your head. I mean, if you’re racing guys that early in the race and you’re putting yourself in a position where you can tear up your car, bend a fender or do something where you make that car a tenth of a second slower than what it would be if you didn’t get yourself in that situation and tear it up early in a race, you’re not using your head and putting yourself in a good situation to be fast at the end of a race.
I think that’s part of the process. I think it is kind of unfair for these young drivers. I mean, I think so much pressure is put on them, and unfair pressure at that. I think these car owners are scouting these drivers at such a young age so that I think it’s unfair for the guys that are coming in now. I think it’s a situation that if these drivers are hired by, you know, these car owners, that the car owners shouldn’t have the right to just trade them out like baseball cards at the end of the year if they’re not getting it done. I mean, they’re putting these drivers in those situations, and they’re basically putting the drivers in situations that could be career ending decisions for a lot of these guys if they don’t produce right away. I think it’s unrealistic for, you know…
I think guys like Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer are exceptions to the rule here, but I don’t think everybody’s that talented right off the bat to where they can go out and be in competitive cars and run well right away.
I think if the car owners are making these commitments to get these drivers in the car and want to work that hard to get them in there, they need to give them a full three years to prove themselves instead of these one and done years that a lot of these drivers have had happen in the last couple years.
Q. One other thing. Who does the rookie meetings now? I guess I’ve lost track of that. Who is the driver who does the rookie meetings?
TONY STEWART: I don’t know. I don’t know who does them anymore.
Q. Can you explain to people who might not be as familiar with the sport as many of us are how you have a run in with Ryan, how you have a run in with Matt, and now you’re going fishing with Ryan, motorcycles with Matt. What is the process in that where you guys just keep going forward?
TONY STEWART: It’s fairly simple. I mean, I think there’s days that you go to work and you may have a disagreement with somebody, too, but it passes. You know, when you’re on the track, you only see it from one perspective. After the race is over, you have the ability to see the other driver’s perspective. A lot of times it’s just lack of communication or miscommunication from the drivers’ standpoint with each other. You know, it’s not like we can sit there and directly talk to each other during a race. So a lot of times it’s miscommunication through the spotters or just lack of communication, period.
So, you know, I think for all of us, we’re all smart enough to realize that we work with each other 38 weeks a year. It’s not a fun feeling being out there running 200 miles an hour having to worry about somebody each week. It’s, like I said, when you have the opportunity to sit down afterwards and understand what’s going on from each other’s side, even if you disagree with each other after it’s all said and done, you at least have the respect for each other and what you’re doing to put it aside and go back to doing what you need to do the next weekend.
Q. I’m looking a little bit ahead here on Bristol. I was going to ask you, how nerve wracking is it for you guys coming this close to the Chase to go to a track like this where it’s so easy to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?
TONY STEWART: It’s not. I mean, it’s that way for everybody. If you were singled out and it was a nerve wracking place for you, it would be one thing. But considering it’s the same for everybody, it puts everybody in that same position. I think from our standpoint, I’d like to believe that, you know, we try not to get ourselves in too many positions like that to where something can happen to us, you know. Granted, I can put myself in a position that creates havoc for us, but, you know, I think with the situation the way it is, I think we’ll be pretty good about staying away from situations like that
Q. Is there any kind of words of wisdom that you have about being successful and running up front at Bristol?
TONY STEWART: You know, it’s kind of the same thing we always talk about and what we were talking about earlier. Bristol is a 500 lap race. If you’re out there racing your guts out a hundred laps into it and not being patient, normally it ends up biting you because that’s a place that’s very, very hard to pass. You know, somebody’s faster than you, you normally if you got the patience to work with the guys, you know, you’re 200 laps into the race, still doesn’t mean anything. A lot of times that same guy will work with you again. It seems like if you can work really good with the field and the pack like that, you keep yourself out of situations where you feel like you have to pressure somebody and put yourself in a compromising position to get by.
It just seems like the better you can take care of your car, the last 150 laps are what really count there. Just seems like the first 350 laps you work on your car, trying to get yourself in a position to be good for that last 150.
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