Duff's blog: Is batchelor boy Stewart ready to change lanes?
They might seem like an odd couple, but NASCAR driver Tony Stewart and Detroit rock musician Kid Rock are fast friends. The latter joined the former at Detroit's Motor City Casino Wednesday, where Stewart was promoting the June 15 NASCAR Sprint Cup Lifelock 400 race at Michigan International Speedway. "He's just a good guy, a good human being," Kid Rock said of the oft-controversial Stewart, who displayed quickly that this was definitely a mutual admiration society. "We actually met at a concert in Charlotte years ago," Tony Stewart said. "I came to have even greater respect for him that night. He played two songs with David Allan Coe that night and later, David had a concert at midnight. (Kid Rock) said, 'Hey come with us' and we went to David's show. And the same two songs they played at his concert, they played at David's concert, but they played them in a totally different style. That's what really made me realize what a great talent he is. With his talent as an artist, if he were a race-car driver, he'd have no problem making the chase every year." That didn't prevent Stewart from taking a little dig as his guitar-playing buddy. "I spent some long days with him and when I say long days, I mean 24-hour days," Stewart said. "He knows what time the sun comes up in the morning, because that's about what time he's ready to go to bed."
Hey ladies, here's some big news - Stewart, 36, one of NASCAR's most eligible bachelors, would like to meet a woman and settle down. "It's a hard thing to do when you've got a full-time job as a race-car driver, three racetracks and four race teams to run and a remote-control car company, too," he said of the challenge of meeting that special someone." Would he trade one of his assets for a good woman? "If I was smart I would," he said. "Now, thinking which one you would trade, that's probably the hard part, but yeah, actually, I would. Normally, our theory is we're here for a good time, not a long time, but I'm looking for someone who will be good for a long time."
Stewart admitted that the death Tuesday of NASCAR inspector Brienne Davis, 28, in a car accident in Huntersville, N.C. is a tragedy that impacted upon everyone in the sport. "When you lose a crew member, or a competitor that you race against, or an official that you see every week, it affects everybody," he said. "It's affected a lot of people already in the past 24 hours and some of those officials are going to have to get on a plane this week and wait for one of them that isn't coming anymore. They're their own team. I always say the truck drivers and the officials have the hardest jobs in our sport, because they're the first ones to get there and the last ones to leave every week."
Driving a Toyota for the first time this season, former Chevrolet driver Stewart recognizes that he will be lustily booed during driver introductions at MIS this season and welcomes the abuse. "I hope so," Stewart said. "This is the hotbed for American automobiles, so you're going to have that. I would be disappointed if they didn't do that. They've got a lot of proud Americans (and Canadians) who build cars every day. It justifies their support of their brand. The day that they don't do that is the day that I'm going to be disappointed."
Stewart is impressed by how rapidly the Toyotas have become competitive in just their second season of Sprint Cup racing. "I have to admit, I am a little surprised at how quickly we've been able to get to where we are," he said. "We knew that we would get there, but I don't think any of us knew exactly when we'd get to where we needed to be. We've had really good power. I think everybody gives us too much credit for Toyota's success this year. A lot of it comes from what the teams learned who ran Toyota's last year. They learned a lot that first year that's enabled us to get to where we are this year. Obviously, we've been able to throw in a little bit to make the equation even better."
Stewart sees both good and bad with this season's full-time implementation of the Car of Tomorrow. "You used to be able to look at a car and tell a Toyota from a Chevy from a Dodge from a Ford," he said. "Twenty years ago, we could sit on the backstretch and say, 'Hey, that's a Thunderbird over there.' Now, you rely on knowing, 'Hey, that's the Tony Stewart Home Depot Car. That's a Toyota.' That's how people relate to the cars now." On the other hand, he appreciates the balance the car has brought to the series. "With the restrictions they have on what you can and cannot do, if you find something that works at Michigan, there's probably some aspect of it that's going to work at Bristol or Pocono or someplace else."
Not one to keep his opinions to himself, Stewart's been fairly mellow with his words so far this season. "It's not by design, it's really who I am," he said. "I'm passionate about what I do and if I feel like somebody's done me wrong, then I 'm going to do what I do. All the stupid stuff I've done in the past, it's because I'm very emotional about what I do. I've learned to take a deep breath and think about what I'm saying before I say it. I'm still not perfect with it. I think everybody just expects me to be that way. Atlanta was the perfect example when we had the tire issues that day. I wanted to make sure I got somebody's attention . I went way overboard on that, but I went overboard in a way that I wanted to me sure that somebody at Goodyear got the message . They got the message delivered that day."
Though he's hinted at retirement in the past, Stewart is singing a different tune this season. "In all honesty, even though we haven't got a win yet, I've had more fun with my team this year than I think we've had any year. I think Zippy (crew chief Greg Zipadelli) and I are communicating better than ever and I'll be honest, even though I haven't won, I feel like I've driven some of my best races this year. We had some of our best races of the year this year." Stewart also sees a new-found attitude among the NASCAR driving colony. "The respect for everybody is getting better and better," he said. "I think everybody has raced each other hard, but everybody has raced each other clean. I see a respect level this year that I don't think I've seen before. I'm enjoying this sport. I'm going to be here a long time.
He also foresees a long future with Joe Gibbs Racing, who have Stewart under contract through the 2009 season. "There's nothing broke there," Stewart said. "Nothing needs to be fixed. Joe's a great friend. He's the guy I go to when I need advice about my race teams. He's my team coach, I guess. He deals with 430-some employees, I deal with 15 employees."
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