NASCAR WCUP: Stewart Hoping to Pick Up Where He Left Off at Sears Point
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
June 20, 2001
DETROIT - Pontiac driver Tony Stewart is looking forward to tending to a little unfinished business this weekend at Sears Point Raceway.
Stewart has led just two laps on road courses during the first two years of his NASCAR Winston Cup career, but both of them came last year on the Sonoma, California, race course. Stewart, who has never started worse than sixth in a road course event, was well on his way to challenging for the victory when he began to feel ill. He gutted it out in the summer heat past the halfway point of the race, but eventually gave way to a relief driver, thus ending his impressive bid.
Barring that type of ending, Stewart is expecting to be a frontrunner again this time as the Winston Cup Series makes the first of its two annual road course stops. Sunday's 350-kilometer race will serve as a prime opportunity for Pontiac's "WideTrack Attack" to bring the excitement and unsurpassed handling and control familiar to consumers to the NASCAR circuit.
Thoughts From Tony Stewart, No. 20 Home Depot Pontiac Grand Prix
(WITH THE DIET AND FITNESS REGIMEN YOU HAVE IN PLACE, HOW DO YOU FEEL PHYSICALLY GOING INTO SEARS POINT?) "I guess some people assume that I was out of shape last year because of what happened at Sears Point. But I've never had to get pulled out of a race car during a race in my life until Sonoma (Calif.) last year, and that's just because I was flat-out sick. Every year you see drivers having to get pulled out of race cars because they get sick, but that's because we don't call in sick. We get in there and do the job anyway. To me, it's a non-issue. The training that I've been doing this year really isn't any different than what I've done in past years. I feel good."
(HOW DID YOUR TEST AT VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY GO?) "I think it went really well. We ran faster than what we ran last year when we tested there, and the tire that we had this year was a little bit harder. I think that's a good sign. I think there were some areas were we could've been even faster if we were in a race situation. But considering it was just a test, we weren't all that concerned with setting fast time. We were there to learn. It was definitely a productive test and we're looking forward to taking The Home Depot Pontiac to Sonoma."
(HOW DID YOU BECOME A GOOD ROAD RACER, SINCE THAT REALLY WASN'T A BIG PART OF YOUR BACKGROUND?) "I don't know, to be honest. I went out and did the Bondurant school. I went out and did the Russell school at Sonoma. I raced go-karts in the past on road courses, but I never had to shift. I understood the road racing deal to a certain degree, but not to the degree of what you do with a Winston Cup car that is 3,400 pounds. It's a big difference to go from a go-kart to that.
"I do what I think is right out there and that seems to be fairly good and fairly quick. You have that with a crew that can put together a nice solid Pontiac under you and it makes things a little bit easier."
(CAN YOU BEAT JEFF GORDON OUT THERE?) "We can beat him. We were going to beat him last time if, first of all, I hadn't gotten sick and second of all, if Scott Pruett hadn't crashed me out of it. I've heard he might be coming back there for this race, but hopefully we can keep him out of our way long enough to have a productive day.
"But as far as Jeff and I raced, I like racing with Jeff and I like racing with him on the road courses. He is really, really good on the road courses and it makes for a fun race to be able to run with him on those tracks." (IS ROAD RACING FUN?) "Oh yeah, I think they it is. It's something different. When you've got a 36-race schedule, it's nice to have a couple of opportunities each year to do something different and out of the ordinary."
(WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE IRL'S UPCOMING RACE AT RICHMOND ON JUNE 30?) "I think if I had any guts at all, I'd go up there, get a ride and just spank their butts. I think it would be fun. I'm really anxious for it to get here and I can promise you that I'll be watching that race. I'm anxious to see what kind of race it turns out to be. But man, I sure wish I was going to be in a car because I've got a feeling I could really do some damage up there.
"It will be neat. I think it's definitely going to be a short track race for those guys. We talk about that being a short track race for Winston Cup cars. But at the speeds those guys run, this is a true 'bullring' for those guys. This is the equivalent of those guys having to go to Martinsville. "It will be interesting. I don't know whether it's going to be a good race or a bad race. There is such a good crop of IRL drivers and teams there. You can't just look at the Indy 500 where teams that have five times the budget were able to come in there and do really well. When Penske's team went to Phoenix, they didn't win Phoenix; they didn't lead Phoenix. "I think it's going to be a good race. My gut tells me it's going to be a good race. I hope it's a good race. But no matter what, it's going to be interesting."
Text provided by Al Larsen
Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot photos and racing art, please visit The Racing Image Galleries and The Visions of Speed Art Gallery .