Switching gears
During Indy homecoming, Stewart looks ahead to life as owner/driver
INDIANAPOLIS - Tony Stewart is back home again in Indiana, back at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he twice kneeled at the start-finish line and kissed the yard of bricks after winning the Brickyard 400.
Those memories still resonate for Stewart, the 37-year-old native of Columbus, Ind., who ranks 10th in the Sprint Cup Series points but is winless with seven races left before the start of the Chase for the Championship at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Sept. 14.
"I think the first year it was more of a huge weight lifted off our shoulders that we accomplished a lifelong dream of ours," said Stewart, who first won the Brickyard 400 in 2005 en route to his second NASCAR championship and was victorious again last year. "And I think last year it was a chance that we really got to enjoy it with our team. We were really able to enjoy the win that night versus just the emotional drain of finally accomplishing a goal like it was the first time around."
And so Stewart will try to retrace his steps to Victory Lane, knowing just 17 races remain in his 10-year tenure in the orange No. 20 car fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing. Stewart will part with Gibbs Racing and crew chief Greg Zipadelli, with whom he's won 32 races, two championships, and $68,854,872, at season's end to enter a new realm as an owner/driver for the Stewart-Haas Racing team.
"Obviously, I've got a great race team and still have a great race team at Gibbs right now," Stewart said. "We've battled a lot of adversity in the last 9 1/2 years, and obviously, when your guys don't know what you're going to do for sure and you don't know what you're going to do for sure, it makes it a little bit tense, but I think we all have made the most of it."
The tension mounted as news leaked about Stewart's plans to leave Gibbs, become part owner of the Haas CNC Racing team, field Chevrolets for himself and a second driver (rumored to be Ryan Newman), and bring aboard
"It was definitely something that was a hard process, for sure, but now that we're through that, I can't say that it's a big weight lifted off my shoulders," said Stewart. "It's like you just switched weights. We took one off our shoulders and added another one.
"If I wasn't excited about doing this, I think that would probably bother me a lot. But I mean, I'm excited about it and I'm excited about all the pressure that we have going into next year now. It's something that we've been looking forward to."
While he's kissed the bricks at Indy, Stewart has never quaffed the milk at the Brickyard, the traditional nectar of the Indianapolis 500 winner. Now that he's set to become an owner, Stewart said he'll likely have to give up his pursuit of an Indy 500 triumph.
"With this new venture, I feel like I need to focus that much more energy toward the Cup program," said Stewart, who pulled Memorial Day double duty in 1999 and 2001 by racing in both the Indy 500 and the
"Even if the logistics worked out, I don't see myself trying to go back and run the 500 anymore. It's just something that the amount of work and dedication that it's going to take to be part of this organization and try to help it be successful is going to take a lot of time and effort. So splitting my time up between two events is just going to dilute my effort with what we are doing on the Cup side, so I'm just going to focus on that."
Stewart's Brickyard 400 victories have seemingly satiated his desire to win at Indy.
"I don't want you guys to confuse the desire of winning versus the pressure of winning," he said. "I think the pressure goes away, but the desire is still there, and I think, if anything, it makes it easier to focus on what you're trying to do and what you're trying to accomplish because you don't sit there and wonder all weekend what it would be like to win.
"You know what that feeling is like and you know what to do to accomplish that goal."
Stewart now faces the challenge of building a team, finding the right personnel and the right sponsors, while honoring his commitment to win a third championship with his present team. Although it's been rumored Newman, who recently announced his decision to part with Penske Racing, will join Stewart-Haas Racing next season, Stewart insists nothing is imminent.
"I feel like that's a big key in this whole program being successful next year is having the right teammate," Stewart said.
So what kind of driver would he want as a teammate? "We definitely want somebody that you feel like is dedicated to what we're trying to do, and realizing that, we're taking an organization that's not had the success that it wants and has the foresight to look forward," Stewart said. "And is going to put 110 percent into making this organization the best it can be."
It wasn't long ago that Stewart, in a fit of frustration after getting wrecked in a race at Texas Motor Speedway, threatened that it wouldn't be long before he won enough money and retired. But now he seems committed for the long haul.
"But it doesn't mean that I have to drive," he said. "I don't know how long that I'll be a driver, but the good thing is, I've enjoyed being an owner in USAC, I've enjoyed being an owner in the World of Outlaws Series, and I have no doubt that I'm going to enjoy this experience of being an owner in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
"We'll see what direction that goes, but I have an option now. I've always had an option, as a driver, of deciding when I retire and doing it on my own terms. On the other hand, I have an ownership role that I might stay involved in NASCAR until I die as an owner."
Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.
