Tony Stewart calm, focused in chase for third Brickyard win
INDIANAPOLIS – Tony Stewart’s hauler was not a hive of activity Saturday. There was no throng of fans surrounding his work space, which is wedged between that of Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Danica Patrick and Kurt Busch. An occasional middle-aged man would hop up the steps and through the sliding doors, later appearing with a sandwich or drink.
Stewart wasn’t even sure how many friends and family had been credentialed this weekend as he prepared for his 18th and final run in his home-state race, the Brickyard 400. And that made him ecstatic, inside, apparently beginning with a Friday media session. Because he wasn’t projecting much outwardly but a calculated, creatively edgy confidence reminiscent of his days as one of Sprint Cup’s most dominant drivers.
“I’ve done a great job, because I have no clue how many friends and family will be here this weekend,” he said of handling Brickyard stress and commitments. “It was not my responsibility to get them all here. I don’t know how many of them are here. I will see them after the race is over, but I’m going to work here in a minute, and that is all I care about doing for three days.”
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The retiring three-time Sprint Cup champion was serene again Saturday and focused on the only farewell gift he said he really wanted, a third win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway - the scene of his fondest childhood racing memories, an unrequited love affair with the Indianapolis 500 and his eventual redemption in stock cars. Nelson Stewart, the source of the smoldering inner core that has defined Stewart, said his son had no concerns.
“I think he is absolutely calm and cool,” he said.
Many of the dozens in Stewart’s contingent had massed in his pit stall during qualifying, where he briefly topped the board in the final knockout session but eventually settled for a satisfactory starting spot of third. Leaning against a fence behind the pit wall, chatting with well-wishers and representatives from various sponsors, Nelson Stewart grinned approvingly when his son brought the No. 14 Chevrolet back to pit road. He nudged through for a handshake and a brief word with his son, then egressed as this next phase of the end phase had been completed.
The weekend was going according to plan, even when it deviated slightly.
IMS officials had constructed a temporary dirt track in Turn 3 for a July 5 publicity event featuring Stewart, but track president Doug Boles surprised the Columbus native with a gift Friday that seemed to resonate. Stewart warmed at the presentation of a framed square segment of catch fencing that he had ascended after winning his first Brickyard 400 in 2005.
But a win Sunday is the ultimate prize. Nelson Stewart said a win Sunday, “would probably be his biggest win ever.”
“That would be an excellent going away present,” he continued.
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Stewart’s long-time business manager and confidante, Eddie Jarvis, hovered just outside the media scrum following qualifying, occasionally wiping perspiration from his brow under the mid-afternoon swelter.
“It’s been easy,” Jarvis said of the weekend. “He knows the deal. He’s very laid back.”
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Calm, focused, and in control. Establishing that mindset was made easier after breaking an 84-race winless streak at Sonoma Raceway, all but assuring a spot in the 16-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup. It seems to hearten those who fondly recall the pre-2013 Stewart, who was befallen by performance woes before two major injuries and a 2014 incident in which he struck and killed fellow driver Kevin Ward Jr. in a sprint car race.
“It’s good to see,” said Patrick, who met Stewart as a teen at a trade show. “He’s a good person. He deserves it. He’s had a great career and he deserves to go out with happy memories instead (of) ‘get me out of here’, you know?”
There was some of that, but happily so, for Stewart on Saturday. His obligations complete, they strode down pit road toward Stewart’s mental escape for the evening, Kokomo Speedway, where the All-Star Sprint Cars series he owns would be part of the Indiana Dirt Classic.
And then there will be Sunday, when that calm, focus and control will be ultimately tested. But for now, everything is under control.
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