What occurred after sundown Sunday, following Tony Stewart’s 18th-place finish in the Ford 400 to lock up the Winston Cup season title, was more than a mere champion’s news conference.
It was more confession, therapy session, catharsis.
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He volunteered that during his tribulations of this season–the punches, the outbursts, the accusations of mistreating fans–things were even more turbulent inside his team than out.
“There were times when guys wanted to leave because they just didn’t want to work for me,” he said. “I don’t blame them. The way my attitude was this season, I wouldn’t have worked for me. We did lose a couple of guys.
“I’ve had heart-to-hearts where I’ve sat and cried with guys in Zippy’s [crew chief Greg Zipadelli’s] office and said: `I’m sorry for what I’m doing to you guys. And I’m not doing it because I want to hurt you. I’m doing it because I’m frustrated. If you’ll bear with me, we’ll make it right.’
“And hopefully with this championship, we’ll make some of it right. There’s a lot of things I’m not ever going to be able to repair, the things I’ve done to some of those guys.”
Mark Martin, the man Stewart and his Pontiac beat for the championship by 38 points, said: “Yeah, he’s intense, and, yeah, it’s going to be interesting to watch [his performance in the champion’s limelight] because it’s a tremendous load. But I admire Tony. I’m a Tony Stewart fan. He’s a racer’s racer.”
Stewart, 31, is deemed by NASCAR insiders as a guy who’ll drive anything, anywhere but would really rather be back on the Saturday night dirt tracks of his youth in Indiana, free again of the glitz and public demands of major motor racing.
“I am a commercialized racer,” said Martin, who finished fourth Sunday in a Ford. “You have to be, in this business, and I’ve done my very best to represent the sport the best way I can.
“But down deep, I’m like Tony. I’d rather be on the road right now, headed toward a dirt track.
“He just didn’t step in and get this stuff given to him. He’s won everywhere he’s ever been.”
But Stewart hasn’t considered his path to the top a struggle.
“I started racing because I was too lazy to work a real job,” he said. “And that’s the God-honest truth.”
A part-time racer since he was 8, when he was 20, “I was sitting in the middle of Rush County, Ind., running a drill press, sitting on a metal stool on a concrete floor. Then I went out to Phoenix to the Copper World Classic and finished second in a [USAC] Silver Crown car. My share was $3,500. When I got back to work, I’d sit there running that drill press, trying to figure out how many $5 hours it would take me to make $3,500.
“I realized that if I were [full-time] race driver, I could sleep till noon. I could go to the track at 4, I’d be done by midnight and I’d still be wide awake.
“If I could do that three nights a week and pay the bills … not that I haven’t worked. I’ve sealed parking lots. I’ve driven a tow truck. I’ve done some pretty terrible jobs.”
The hard-knocks past and the intense present have won him the round admiration of his peers. Bill Elliott, a vastly different personality from Stewart, earlier this year called Stewart one of his best friends ever–on the same day, Aug. 4, that Stewart socked a photographer at Indianapolis. Then Dale Jarrett stood up at a drivers meeting and led a show of support for Stewart, already on probation for the Indy incident, while he faced a Tennesee grand jury investigation for criminal assault, for allegedly shoving a fan at Bristol.
Kurt Busch, who won Sunday’s race, said: “I see Tony on a different level. He’s a very warm individual. He won’t spite you.”
Just how differently Stewart is viewed by his peers than by the outside world showed Sunday. Other drivers and crewmen flocked to congratulate him.
“As much as everybody wanted to get out of here and go home, because we all need a break, they thought it was important to come out and see me,” Stewart said. “To have your peers come out there and congratulate you like that–I don’t care what check Winston writes, I don’t care how many trophies they give me–the feeling and satisfaction of seeing those guys out there is more than money can buy.”