Tuesday's talk with former champion Tony Stewart at Daytona International Speedway
ThatsRacin.com Report
Transcript of Tuesday’s question-and-answer session with former NASCAR champion Tony Stewart during preseason testing at Daytona International Speedway:
HERB BRANHAM: We are joined by Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota. If you could just start off by telling us how your first day and a half of testing has gone down here.
TONY STEWART: Pretty good. We've not missed a shift yet, and that's the hardest part of what we've done the last day and a half. So other than that, it's just hold it wide open and ride around.
HERB BRANHAM: This year we have the 50th running of the Daytona 500, always an important race to win. Talk about what it would mean to win the 50th edition. TONY STEWART: The same as what it would have meant to win the 49th edition last year.
Q. I know it's just testing, but Toyota has been posting top speeds, something they weren't able to do last year. What's changed in the last year or maybe just even in the off-season?
TONY STEWART: I don't know, I just started working for them yesterday. I mean, yesterday was my first real day, other than a tire test at Vegas. So I don't know. I mean, I haven't been with the program a year to know where they started and how they got to where they are today.
Q. There's been a lot of talk, as there always is, about driver personalities and people that are boring and how they can show more personality and everything like that. Obviously you don't have a problem with that, but my question is is it worth it for people to show their personalities given that there's such a firestorm sometimes when you do, if you make comments that people don't like?
TONY STEWART: Yeah, I don't think it's worth it to be honest. And the thing is most of the people you deal with on a weekly basis, nine out of the ten get it and know what you mean, but the tenth person that doesn't get it or is trying to find an angle to make it the way they want it to come out makes it not worth it. It's just a lot easier just to be kind of plain-Jane and know that when you leave the track Sunday night you don't have to go to work Monday and Tuesday putting out fires.
Q. Last weekend you're in a Chevy at the Chili Bowl. They've obviously made a huge investment in your Sprint Car, and now you're going to be the face of the Sprint Cup operation. Can you talk about the line you're walking there? Is it kind of hard on one side to be working for Toyota and on the other side to be aligned with Chevy/GM?
TONY STEWART: Not really. When we started the USAC programs we went to Mopar right away, so I was driving a Chevy on the Cup side and driving – all of our open wheel teams were Mopar. So it's no different than what I've had to do in the past with it. It's really not that big a deal.
Q. After all your experience does it get easier to handle the changes at this level, the changes of rules, equipment, engines?
TONY STEWART: I think everybody that gets to this level can handle it. I don't think it's a bigger deal having more experience. But this year it's not as big a change obviously. In the big picture it seems like a huge change because we switched manufacturers. But if we went ahead and made this change a year ago, it would have been a lot more dramatic than it is this year with the car that's the same for everybody. It's just literally a decal package and a motor package for the most part. I think it's less of a change this year than it would have been in the past.
Q. Can you talk about Joe Gibbs coming back and whether you've had a chance to digest what that means for you guys over there?
TONY STEWART: I don't know what it's going to mean, honestly. Obviously the football deal didn't work out quite as everybody hoped it would have for Joe. He put a lot of time in it and heart and soul into it. But we're glad to have him back because we missed him when he was gone in the first place. Not that we ever felt like there was a void there, but Joe's personality was definitely missed a lot, and obviously he has leadership qualities that – no matter how much time J.D. spent with him, Joe is Joe and J.D. is J.D. Having Joe back around is going to be a lot of fun. We all missed him the last couple years and we hated to see him leave on those kind of terms and everything, but happy at the same time that he's back. We'll find out in the next couple months, I guess. It never hurts to have Joe around. I mean, it can't hurt an organization to have Joe Gibbs around. He's a great leader.
Q. Clair kind of did the job for me, but if I can just ask a quick follow-up, do you mind sort of telling us sort of when and how you heard about Coach Gibbs' decision and just your gut reaction at the moment?
TONY STEWART: I was last week in Oklahoma racing and had just heard from somebody in my organization that Joe was getting ready to make an announcement that he was coming back. I can't say it surprised me, actually. To see him struggle like that the last two years wasn't something that – like I said, that anybody anticipated was going to happen. But at the same time, you know, you learn to never say never with Joe and you learn to expect the unexpected. I was kind of preoccupied that day with what I was doing, but at the same time it was shocking to hear that because I really expected him to be there at least another year and hopefully get everything turned around.
Q. I have not seen your name show up on any of the entry lists for next weekend's Rolex 24. Any reason why you're skipping the race this year?
TONY STEWART: We've got four out of five straight days of testing the next week. With our schedule as heavy as it is on the Cup side, to leave on Sunday afternoon and fly straight to Vegas after being up all night and running a 24-hour race and then trying to test two days and have a travel day the next day on Wednesday and then test two more days, it makes for a pretty long week. I told Jim France if he could get the test moved back a week or get it to where we didn't start until Wednesday I'd have been more than happy to do it. I'm going to miss being at the Rolex obviously, but at the same time I'm not going to beat myself into the ground early in the year this year. We've got a pretty aggressive testing schedule with the NASCAR tests that we already have scheduled, plus our own tests that we're scheduling. So we're just trying to make it where we're not just wore out by the time we come here in February.
Q. You talked a little bit about this in the past, but I'm just wondering if over the last couple of months if you had any stories about anybody you've run into who has had a negative reaction about you switching to Toyota, anything at all along those lines?
TONY STEWART: No, we honestly haven't. It's been surprising. Listening to everything a year ago, I thought we would have heard a lot more than what we did. But we really haven't heard anything. It's been very, very small from that standpoint.
Q. You probably answered this so this will be your favorite kind of question –
TONY STEWART: Coming from you it won't be a surprise.
Q. I know. You hate testing or don't like it so much, you have skipped this session in years past. Can you talk about your decision to be here this year?
TONY STEWART: It was pretty easy. It's because Chili Bowl was last week and our test session was this week. Literally that's what the decision was. It wasn't are we going to go or are we not going to go. Strictly it was just the past two or three years we've always ran the Chili Bowl the same week that our test has come up. Mike has always come and it's always been single runs anyway, so it really wasn't a factor. But it worked out better for us this year that the race was last week, and then this week since we're doing drafting practice this afternoon and tomorrow, it worked out better that it got separated like that, so it worked out in our favor. Ecstatic.
Q. Does the Toyota feel any different than the Chevrolet, or if you didn't know what car make you were in you wouldn't know that there was a change?
TONY STEWART: I wouldn't know the difference so far. It's hard to say. I mean, you've got to keep in mind, you're on a two-and-a-half-mile track and you're holding it wide open. You're not going to really feel it until you get around other cars. Any driver that says they can is a heck of a lot better driver than me because I can't tell the difference. I couldn't tell the difference when we went to Vegas. You're not going to know. You're not talking about 20-, 30-horsepower gains to where you're going to feel it. You're only talking five- to eight-horsepower difference, and you're not going to feel that. Any driver that says he can feel that on the racetrack is lying to you.
Q. Do you think the change of manufacturer is really a bigger deal for the fan to absorb or the guys that are out there on the track?
TONY STEWART: It looks the same from where I am, so it's probably a bigger change for the fans than anything. Obviously if we go down the straightaway faster it's going to be a big deal for us behind the steering wheel. But again, I guess to answer your question, it's probably going to be more for the fans than anything.
Q. There was an extremely low truck count out there for preseason testing, 32 of a 36-truck field. You've jumped on them in the past, and of course we've heard people talking about how fun they are, but would there be any chance you would throw something together or jump in a Kevin Harvick truck or something? Would you want to do something like that?
TONY STEWART: No.
Q. Your open-wheel team session with Chevrolets, Toyota makes a pretty good midget engine from what I understand. Any thoughts of switching the open-wheel program to the Toyota?
TONY STEWART: No, because we've got a contract with Chevy, so it made that decision real easy.
Q. This is another one you've answered before, but in light of my –
TONY STEWART: Why are you asking it again?
Q. It's pertinent again. The dissolution of, I guess, the crew chief-driver relationship with Kenseth and Reiser, it kind of puts more of a focus on you and Zips being even longer of a partnership than anybody else out there. Just talk about what it's like. Getting here yesterday, I don't know how long it had been since you've seen Zippy, what it's like seeing him again and getting back to work. Talk about what makes your relationship so great.
TONY STEWART: The same as when you asked me in December, I guess. But it really wasn't a big deal when we saw each other yesterday. We've done this off and on for 38 weeks a year for nine straight years now, so it's not like we're apart for a year from each other and it's a big class reunion. Zippy and I talk a lot even in the off-season when we don't get a chance to see each other, we still talk on the phone. So it's not like it's a big deal that we haven't seen each other since the Joe Gibbs Christmas party in December. It was only two or three weeks ago – actually it was two weeks ago that we were hunting together. We still see each other a lot in the off-season, and when we don't see each other we talk on the phone and keep up. But the same thing, this is the same answer I've probably answered 400 times as far as why we get along so good together. We have the same passion and desire to win, and when you have that and when you have a combination like that, you work really hard to protect it. I think Zippy and I are now that position to where we don't see each other doing something away from each other. If one of us decides to retire, the other one is going along with him. If he says, "I'm done, I'm ready to do something different," then that's probably when I'll say I'm ready to do something different, too, or vice versa.
Q. I was talking to the Toyota people about your long-term contract, and they're very anxious to show you that they can perform. You had said that you were going to wait, that you didn't want to do it during the off-season. Is performance a key thing that you're watching for before you get into those contract talks, or are you just going to take your time?
TONY STEWART: Well, it's obviously a lot easier to sit back and wait and see what happens and see what direction things go. But if seeing what we've done so far is any indication, I think they've done a great job already. You know, my No. 1 goal is just like sitting here, and Dale, Jr., everybody has got the same goal, we all want to go out and win races and that's what it boils down to at the end of the day. Like I told you guys last year, I don't care if it's Key or whoever, I just want to win races. This is the position that Joe and J.D. thought was best to give us that opportunity, and right now we're just worried about winning. We'll worry about all the paperwork and all that legal stuff later on. It's not a high priority on my list right now, honestly. I want to go out and worry about winning races, and I've got two years to figure out what I'm trying to do. The immediate thing is trying to figure out what we've got to do to win at Daytona and then the following week and the following week.
Q. Are you going to find time to go to Barrett-Jackson this week, and if so –
TONY STEWART: I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon as soon as Zippy says we're loading up. I don't have anything on the list of things that I'm going out and taking a look at. That's just a fun event. That's actually the last thing I get to do before the season starts that I actually get to go have fun. It's kind of a trip with a group of guys that I have fun with, and we get away from home and get away from the women of the house and go have fun and play around with a bunch of car guys. We'll enjoy it.
Q. You've got Mike Joy there to help you out?
TONY STEWART: Yeah, Mike Joy is my go-to guy on whether this is a good car or a bad car or all that. All you've got to do is listen to the TV this week and you'll know he knows his stuff on cars for sure.
__________________
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Stewart straddles line as Toyota pilot, Chevy owner
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- These days, where there is Smoke there is Toyota.
But sometimes Chevrolet remains in the cloudy picture as well, when it comes to Tony Stewart. Long ago nicknamed "Smoke," Stewart now drives Toyotas for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Sprint Cup Series. The Gibbs operation made the switch to Toyotas following last season after running Chevrolets for the previous six years and for 11 of the past 16 (being in Pontiacs for the five-year stretch in between).
But Stewart also is the proud owner of Tony Stewart Racing, based in Brownsburg, Ind. He opened a 25,200-square-foot shop there last year shortly after announcing that he had signed a three-year contract with Chevrolet to sponsor three USAC teams and in the World of Outlaw Series through 2009. According to sources, Chevy also has an option to extend the deal beyond '09.
So now Stewart is left at times to promote Toyota as a driver on one hand, and Chevy as a car owner on the other. No one should be surprised, since Stewart may be the most complex personality on the Cup circuit.
But maybe this arrangement is not quite as complex as it appears at first glance. When Stewart competed in the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals this past weekend in Tulsa, Okla., Toyota Racing Development general manager Lee White was spotted in Stewart's pits -- even though Stewart was driving a Chevy in that competition and fielded four other entries for Tony Stewart Racing.
Toyota had only five entries overall in the Chili Bowl, which began with 296 combatants trying to race their way into a 24-car main event (two of Toyota's five made it, finishing second and fourth, respectively).
"I'll be very honest: our preference would be if Dave Darland, Josh Wise, Jason Leffler or one of those guys won that event [driving a Toyota]," White said. "But if they can't win it, I'm pulling for Tony. I don't care if he's driving a Chevrolet, a Kia or a Mahindra tractor.
"If he wins, we win. It's just that simple."
White's point is that soon, if not already, whenever folks see Stewart's face connected with racing, they are going to know he drives a Toyota in the Cup Series. That belief is key to the manufacturer's entire marketing campaign connected to getting JGR to make what at first seemed a controversial switch.
Stewart downplays the fact that he owns and sometimes drives Chevys on the open-wheel side, yet works exclusively for Toyota now on the Cup side.
"When we started the USAC programs, we went to Mopar right away -- so I was driving a Chevy on the Cup side then and all of our open-wheel teams were Mopar," Stewart said. "So it's no different than what I've had to do in the past with it. It's really not that big a deal."
That is the way Stewart appears to be approaching the Gibbs switch from Chevys to Toyotas as well. He said that especially with the full-time switch this season to the Car of Tomorrow for all Cup cars, making a change in manufacturers is not as dramatic as it may appear.
Lee White
White
"In the big picture it seems like a huge change because we switched manufacturers," Stewart said. "But if we went ahead and made this change a year ago, it would have been a lot more dramatic than it is this year with the car that's the same for everybody. It's just literally a decal package and a motor package, for the most part. I think it's less of a change this year than it would have been in the past."
Stewart went so far as to assert that he felt little or no difference between the Chevrolet he drove in the past and the Toyota he drove during the first day and a half of single-car-run Preseason Thunder testing at Daytona International Speedway.
"I wouldn't know the difference so far. It's hard to say," Stewart said. "I mean, you've got to keep in mind that you're on a 2.5-mile track and you're holding it wide open. You're not going to really feel it until you get around other cars. Any driver that says they can is a heck of a lot better driver than me, because I can't tell the difference.
"I couldn't tell the difference when we went to [test in Las] Vegas. You're not going to know. You're not talking about 20- or 30-horsepower gains to where you're going to feel it. You're only talking five- to eight-horsepower difference, and you're not going to feel that. Any driver who says he can feel that on the racetrack is lying to you."
Meanwhile, truth has been the best policy in dealing with Stewart, according to White.
In addition to cheering on Stewart in Chevys at the Chili Bowl, White also flew to Tony Stewart Racing headquarters a couple of weeks before JGR announced its alignment with Toyota this past September. White said he made the trip to put Stewart at ease, and did so by "shooting the bull" with him as Stewart's 50 or so employees worked on Chevrolet open-wheel cars all around them.
"If Tony had any reservations about racing Toyota in Cup, there wouldn't be a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. There is no question about that," White said. "I flew into Indiana and spent a whole day with Tony in his shop before the announcement to make sure he understood who I was and who we were, that he was comfortable with this deal.
"There is no pressure from us for him to come out and promote us. As far as his NASCAR racing, he'll do anything he needs to do."
As far as Stewart's commitments on the open-wheel side to Chevy, White insisted that Toyota will not stand in Stewart's way.
"He has an agreement with Chevrolet. I think it's great he's honoring that and they're honoring that," White said. "We would not want to get accused of coercing Tony to break a contract.
"We have teams that race against Tony in Midgets and Sprints. Our first preference is one of those guys wins the races. But if one of those guys can't win the race, I'm a Tony Stewart fan. I'm pulling for Tony. Maybe that's a personal thing. I'm a racer, Tony's a racer. I have a deep appreciation for what he does in all things racing."
The End
__________________ Auto racing, bull fighting and mountain climbing are the only real sports... the rest are just games........ Earnest Hemmingway
# Stewart to be honored: #20-Tony Stewart will receive a ring for winning last year's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard in a ceremony Monday at the Indiana Statehouse. Stewart, a native of nearby Columbus, will receive the champion's ring from Indianapolis Motor Speedway boss Tony George during a ceremony on the floor of the Indiana House. He won the NASCAR race last July in a late duel with Kevin Harvick. It was Stewart's second Brickyard victory in three years at the track he considers his home.(myfoxtoledo.com/AP)(2-2-2008) Comment here
__________________ Auto racing, bull fighting and mountain climbing are the only real sports... the rest are just games........ Earnest Hemmingway
True Speed Communication For Joe Gibbs Racing, Press Release
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., (Feb. 8, 2008) – Two championships. Thirty-two wins. Ten poles. One hundred and nineteen top-five finishes. One hundred and ninety-one top-10 finishes. Those are the numbers that Tony Stewart and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Team have accumulated in their nine years together in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
But despite the impressive figures, the most pressing matter of the moment is readying for the 2008 Sprint Cup season. The wins, the poles and the accolades of year’s past don’t mean much when another grueling, 36-race schedule looms ahead. For all intents and purposes, it’s just another series of never-ending performance reviews.
In 2008, those performance reviews will be watched in earnest. Not just because it’s Stewart who is the pick of many to dethrone Hendrick Motorsports and its two-time and reigning Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, but because Stewart’s drive for a third Cup title will come from behind the wheel of a Toyota Camry.
Stewart’s signature orange and black No. 20 Home Depot machine rumbles on just as it did when it first hit the track at Daytona International Speedway in 1999. But instead of it being a Pontiac, as it was during that rookie year in 1999 and when Stewart won his first championship in 2002, or the Chevrolet Stewart used to secure his second title in 2005, it will be a Toyota in 2008.
Joe Gibbs Racing made the manufacturer switch at the conclusion of the 2007 racing season, and in test sessions at Daytona, Las Vegas and California prior to the start of the 2008 campaign, Stewart’s No. 20 Toyota, along with the Toyotas of his Joe Gibbs Racing brethren – Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch – have proven fast.
But quickness in testing and quickness in actual competition are two very different matters.
For Stewart and crew chief Greg Zipadelli – who together make up the longest active driver/crew chief relationship in the Sprint Cup garage – they are eagerly anticipating their 10th year together. Collectively, they’ve won at least two races in each of their nine years and have an average point finish of fifth.
Having won races and championships with two manufacturers in a sport where you simultaneously outrun your competition while chasing technology, Stewart and Co. seek a third title via their third manufacturer.
NASCAR 2008 is a brave new world, but Stewart and Zipadelli are up for the challenge.
Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing:
There’s a lot of hoopla surrounding the 50th running of the Daytona 500. Would winning this year’s race make it extra special?
“It would mean the same to me as it would’ve meant to win the 49th edition last year. It doesn’t matter what year it is, it’s just special to win the Daytona 500. Its list of winners is a who’s who of racing. The best drivers have won the Daytona 500. When you win the Daytona 500, you win the biggest stock car race in history.
“If you just win one of those it’s special. Obviously, this year is a big anniversary year, but you don’t change your emphasis going into it. You don’t change the preparation for it. You still go out and do the same things you did 13 years ago for it. If there’s ever a cool year to get your first one, this is it, but that’s an obvious answer.”
Do you like competing at Daytona?
“Oh yeah. Daytona is different because you actually have to get your car to handle well there, where at Talladega, everybody’s car handles well. You’re strictly playing a chess match. At least at Daytona, you have to have a good-handling race car. That’s why I wrecked last year. I wrecked because when I got the pit road speeding penalty, I went to the back. My car was too tight when I was in the back. I had to free it up so I could get back to the front. Then when I got there, I was too free. That’s how I wrecked. It puts emphasis on your aero package, your motor package and your car’s handling.”
This is your 10th year at the pinnacle of racing – the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. What drives you?
“I’m here to win races. That’s what I want to do every morning when I get up. All I want to do is win.”
With all that goes on during Daytona Speedweeks, is it easy to lose track of what you need to do for the rest of the season?
“I think everybody is realistic about it and has done this long enough to know that Daytona is a long, grueling week-and-a-half period. But aside from that you do your work there just like we do every week. If we were told to be at each race five days a week, we’d work hard for five days a week. You just work hard for the whole duration that you’re down there, and hope that you get a good result out of it on Sunday. Then you go on to the other 25 races and get ready for the Chase.”
Whenever a new season begins, do you set goals?
“When I was racing Midget and Sprint cars and paying my own bills, you learned to try to win each race. If you did that, everything else seemed to take care of itself. Your goal is to stay consistent all year. That’s our goal.”
What will it take to win another championship?
“If I knew that we’d win the championship every year. There’s no blueprint. Every year if you look back in the history of NASCAR there’s never been two years that have been identical. Every year is kind of like a snowflake – they’re all different. You’ve just got to take the circumstances you’re dealt each week and work to consistently finish in the top-five. If you can do that every week, you’ll put yourself into a position to win the championship.”
Do you feel there is more pressure on you to perform this year than there has in past seasons?
“This series is so competitive week in and week out that I really don’t think there’s any more pressure than there’s always been. It’s a situation where you know there are so many good, quality teams out there that you have to have the right pieces and the right equipment every week. I feel like we have the right pieces in place, and now I just have to go out there and do my job.”
Was there any disappointment or frustration at the end of the last year when you finished sixth in points, or do you look back on it and think that with three wins, it was a pretty good year?
“I was disappointed at the end of the year, honestly. We started the Chase off so well. We weren’t leading the points, but we were in second or third for the first couple of weeks. We were in good position to carry that momentum, but it just seemed like the spokes fell off the wheel, so to speak. We just lost track of it. We just had bad luck, and when it got bad, it got worse. We just never could carry that momentum to the end of the year. I felt disappointed with the way we ended the season. Up to 26 weeks we were second in the points, which we were proud of. But at the time we needed it the most, we didn’t have it and that was disappointing.
“I think the things that we missed on, we’ve gotten corrected. A lot of that is just in the handling of the cars. We had a lot of testing in January, and it gave us an opportunity to hopefully get our cars halfway decent to start the season.”
Hendrick Motorsports was dominant last year, and the theme of 2008 seems to be, “Who will catch Hendrick?” Do you feel you have everything you need to be as good as they’ve managed to be?
“I honestly feel like the one area that we’re going to have to catch up with them on is just getting our cars driving better. At the beginning of the year, there were sparks of brilliance where we were really fast and couldn’t close the deal, but as the season went on, I felt like we fell off the pace a bit in some of those areas with our cars. I feel like that that’s the one area in particular where we’re really going to have to catch up. I don’t think it’s the Toyota side. I think it’s really the variable that didn’t really change from last year, and that’s having the CoT (Car of Tomorrow) car.”
How much do you guys want to knock Hendrick off the block?
“We don’t care about Hendrick. We just want to beat everybody. You’ve got to beat everybody to win it. It doesn’t matter if it’s Hendrick or Evernham or Roush or whoever. We’re not worried about Hendrick more than we’re worried about any other team. If we do our jobs, they’re going to have to worry about us.”
The Car of Tomorrow is now the current car. You weren’t a big fan of it when it debuted last year. What are your thoughts now?
“It’s the same seat that I had last year, so it pretty much feels the same so far. I don’t know. The good thing is that we’re at least going to be in it all year, so I think that’s the comforting thing. We’re not having to switch back and forth between it and the older car, and I think that makes us all feel better. You at least get some consistency from week to week with it. I think it’s going to make everybody a lot happier. It’s definitely going to make the teams a lot happier, for sure.”
If no one had told you that the team had switched from Chevrolet to Toyota, would you have known the difference after testing the Toyota during Preseason Thunder at Daytona?
“I wouldn’t have known the difference. You’ve got to keep in mind that you’re on a two-and-a-half mile track and you’re holding it wide-open. You’re not going to really feel it until you get around other cars. Any driver that says they can is a heck of a lot better driver than me because I can’t tell the difference. You’re not talking about 20-30 horsepower gains that you’re going to feel. You’re only talking about a five to eight horsepower difference, and you’re not going to feel that. Any driver that says he can feel that on a race track is lying to you.”
Does the car move around more than the older generation car you raced at Daytona last year?
“It’s probably more like an IROC (International Race of Champions) car. These cars don’t have near the downforce that our cars had last year. With the limited amount of shock travel in the front, you’re hitting bump rubbers, and last year we weren’t allowed to have bump rubbers. It doesn’t float around the race track like it used to. It’s a lot harsher ride.”
Did you spend any time worrying about the manufacturer change, or do you just figure you’ll race with whatever you’re given?
“It is what it is every week. I know it sounds real elementary and plain, but the race car is still going to do one of three things. It’s going to be tight, it’s going to be loose, or it’s going to four-wheel drift. We’re not reinventing the wheel here. We’re just driving a different car. I’ve driven 22 different types of cars. Every one I got into the first time I’ve had to learn what it likes and dislikes. It’s no different with this one. It’s the same thing we went through half the season last year. It’s not a big monumental change this year. I think last year was a bigger change than this year’s going to be.”
Is the manufacturer change really a bigger deal for your fans to come to terms with?
“The car looks the same from where I sit, so it is probably a bigger change for the fans. Obviously, if we go down the straightaway faster, it’ll be a big deal for me sitting behind the wheel.”
You’ve been competing at the Sprint Cup level for 10 years now. Does all of your experience help you adjust quicker to such massive changes as a switch in manufacturers?
“I think that everybody that gets to this level can handle it. I don’t think it’s a bigger deal having more experience. From the outside looking in, switching from Chevrolet to Toyota probably seems like a huge change. And if we had made this change a year ago, it would’ve been. But it’s a lot less dramatic this year since the car is the same for everybody. For the most part, it’s just a new motor package and some new decals on the nose.”
You have a new teammate in Kyle Busch. What does he bring to Joe Gibbs Racing?
“I’m excited about it. I like Kyle. Kyle and I, our relationship together when he first started was a little rough, but even before he signed the contract, we got things smoothed out and learned how to get along well with each other. I look forward to having him. I know people think he’s a little rough around the edges, but I see a lot of talent in him. I think he’s going to be a great teammate. The test session that we had at Atlanta before the season was even over, working with him and talking to him and communicating with him, I really think he’s going to be a strong asset to this team.
“He’s learned a lot of patience. He’s got a lot of qualities that are going to help this race team. Having all three cars up front every week is something that is going to make us that much stronger. Kyle is very much a team player already. He’s so willing to give information and talk about what his car is doing. Having that information and having three guys that are up front, with our cars driving fairly similarly, is going to make us that much stronger of a race team. We have three guys that have very similar personalities that I think are going to mesh really well.”
Of the three drivers at Joe Gibbs Racing – you, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch – it’s you who appears to be the leader. What are your thoughts about that?
“It’s a little frightening, right? The great thing about being the leader is that they can learn from my mistakes. I’m more than willing to give any information I can to keep them from having some of the problems that I’ve had in the past. I don’t know if I feel a sense of responsibility from that standpoint, but I remember what it was like when I came in and I remember how good Bobby Labonte was to me. If I can help Denny and Kyle in that same way, then I’m more than willing to do that.
“There’s no manual that tells you how to adapt to the Cup Series. When you go from the Truck Series to the (Nationwide) Series, the transition isn’t huge, but when you make that last jump from (Nationwide) to Cup, it’s a huge jump, so it always helps to have veterans that are willing to sit down and take time with you and help you get through some of the headaches and the hurdles that come with being a new guy.”
What’s it like having Joe Gibbs back from football?
“We’re glad to have him back because we missed him when he went back to football in the first place. Not that we ever felt like there was a void when he left, because J.D. (Gibbs) has and continues to do a great job as president, but Joe’s personality was definitely missed a lot. He has leadership qualities in him that are unmatched.”
Can you talk about how J.D. expanded his role as president after Joe left and how much he grew the race team?
“I think he grew really quickly in that role. He’s just a younger Joe. He laughs like Joe. His mannerisms are a lot like Joe. The way he ran the team is a lot like Joe, too. Obviously, anytime you have somebody new, they’re going to have to put their signature on it a little bit. It was a little bit different than having Joe here, but at the same time, it was kind of business as usual.”
You and your crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, continue to have the longest active driver/crew chief relationship in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, especially now that the combination closest to you and Zipadelli – Matt Kenseth and Robbie Reiser – have since parted ways with Reiser moving into a management position within Roush Fenway Racing. You and Zipadelli have hit a milestone mark at 10 years. How do you do it?
“We have the same passion and desire to win, and when you have that combination, you work really hard to protect it. I think Zippy and I are now in a position where we don’t see each other doing something away from one another. If one of us decides to retire, the other one is going along with him. If he says, ‘I’m done, I’m ready to do something different,’ then that’s probably when I’ll say I’m ready to do something different too, or vice versa.”
In addition to 10 years together with your crew chief, it’s been 10 years together with your primary sponsor – The Home Depot. When you made your debut at Daytona in February 1999, did you think you could make it this long?
“I just wanted to make it, let alone make it 10 years here. It makes me proud. It makes me very, very proud of both my relationship with Zippy and Home Depot. They’ve been a great company to work for and hopefully we go another 10 years. It’s been a lot of fun. We’ve been through a lot of highs and a lot of lows, but at the end of the day, we’ve had a lot of fun and we’ve won a lot of races and won two championships. I think we’ve had a very successful first 10 years.”
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True Speed Communication For Joe Gibbs Racing, Press Release
Date: Feb. 17, 2008
Event: 50th Daytona 500 (Round 1 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway
Start/Finish: 6th/3rd (Running, completed 200 of 200 laps)
Winner: Ryan Newman of Penske Racing (Dodge)
It was right there… roughly a mile away – the checkered flag for the 50th running of the Daytona 500. And Tony Stewart was poised to take it.
The driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) took the lead in the season-opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race with only two laps remaining, and held the top spot as he came off turn two and down the 3,000-ft. backstretch of the 2.5-mile oval. But a run on the outside of Stewart by the Penske Racing teammates of Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch heading into turn three proved too strong.
Even with his JGR teammate Kyle Busch pushing him toward the finish line, Stewart could not hold off the run and subsequent 1-2 punch the Penske teammates got from running the high line. Their momentum carried them through turns three and four better than the low line run by Stewart and Kyle, and it was just enough to thwart the efforts of the JGR duo.
Newman crossed the stripe .092 of a second ahead of his teammate, while Stewart and Kyle stuck together to take third and fourth, respectively.
“It’s pretty tough to say that I’m happy to go from first to third on the last lap of the Daytona 500,” said Stewart, whose best Daytona 500 finish remains second in 2004. “I just made the wrong decision on the backstretch and tried to get down in front of Kyle. I thought we could get a push down there, but the No. 2 (Kurt Busch) got glued to the No. 12 (Ryan Newman).
“I don’t know if I could’ve stopped them anyway, and if I would’ve changed lanes, I think I would’ve ended up like a bunch of other guys – wrecked. In all reality and in hindsight, I’m probably going to be a lot happier about it tomorrow. It’s hard to explain. It’s probably one of the most disappointing moments of my racing career.”
Stewart’s impending disappointment began when the caution flag waved on lap 195 for debris. On the ensuing restart, Stewart was slotted third with Jeff Burton first and Kyle in second. Kyle and Stewart split Burton’s No. 31 car, with Kyle going low and Stewart going high. Running the high line propelled Stewart into the lead ahead of Newman, Kyle and Kurt heading into the final lap.
But the Penske lineup of Newman and Kurt connected, and with a full head of steam, they powered their way to the outside entering turn three, and unfortunately, it wasn’t the cool down lap of the Daytona 499.
“Those guys had such a head of steam,” said Kyle of the Penske tandem. “They got ahead of me on that restart. They lagged back and then got a big push. In the NASCAR rulebook, that’s not right, but they let it go. Just frustrating to come home fourth, but that’s a part of the Daytona 500.’
Despite the disappointing outcome, the Daytona 500 was an incredibly strong outing for JGR and its new manufacturer partner, Toyota. Kyle literally led the way by pacing the 43-car field eight times for a race-high 86 laps. Fellow JGR driver Denny Hamlin led five times for 32 laps, the second-highest tally of the day. And Stewart led four times for 16 laps, the third highest total of the race. In all, JGR drivers led 134 of the 200 laps available (67 percent).
Stewart’s third-place result, Kyle’s fourth-place finish and Hamlin’s 17th-place effort – which came as a result of three separate incidents that roughed up the contours of his car’s sheet metal – put the drivers third, fourth and 16th, respectively, in the championship standings.
Newman’s Daytona 500 victory was his first Sprint Cup triumph since he won at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon on Sept. 19, 2005, ending an 81-race race winless streak. And by virtue of his win, he is the series point leader.
Finishing fifth was Reed Sorenson, while Elliott Sadler, Kasey Kahne, Robby Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Greg Biffle comprised the remainder of the top-10.
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Feb. 24 Auto Club 500 at California Speedway in Fontana. The race begins at 4 p.m. EST with live, high-definition coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 3:30 p.m. The race will also be broadcast live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.
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LAS VEGAS (AP)—Two-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart bruised his foot, but was otherwise fine following a frightening crash Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“I was kind of worried, my legs, my entire legs from my hips down were just tingling,” Stewart said. “And I had pain in my lower back and that kind of scared me a little bit. I’ve not had my legs tingle like that before.
“I was kind of worried about, `What’s going on here?”’
Stewart wrecked 108 laps into the race when the right front tire on his Toyota failed. It sent the car hard into the wall, and he immediately called for help.
“I’m hurt,” he radioed his team before slowly climbing from the car. He gingerly walked with the assistance of two emergency personnel into a waiting car that took him to the infield care center.
Stewart bruised his right foot in a hard accident in the Nationwide Series race on Saturday, and said following the Sprint Cup wreck he hit his foot in the second wreck.
“I just hit a spot that was already tender and sore,” he said. “It’s the inside of my foot, just hit it off the pedal and bruised it a little bit. But today’s hit was probably 10 times harder.”
The tingling in his legs frightened the veteran, but he said the sensation had improved by the time he was cleared to leave the care center.
“My legs were tingling, they were about half-numb, and my lower back is sore and that’s probably from tensing up before I hit the wall,” he said. “When you see the hit coming and you know you’re not going to miss it, every muscle in your body tenses up.”
Stewart said he planned to participate in the Cup test scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in Phoenix, and he’d be fine to race next weekend in Atlanta.
“It’s going to be a miserable next two days,” he said. “I was already sore. We’ll do what we’ve got to do the next two days.”
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Stewarts,Busch,and Gordons wrecks were all really hard hits.
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Paint Scheme Highlighting The Home Depot’s 10-Year Tenure with NASCAR, Joe Gibbs Racing and Tony Stewart to Adorn No. 20 Car at Atlanta
True Speed Communication For Joe Gibbs Racing, Press Release
ATLANTA (March 5, 2008) – Tony Stewart’s No. 20 Home Depot Toyota will sport a slightly different look when it takes to the track for this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The traditional orange and black colors of primary sponsor Home Depot will remain, but in celebration of the Atlanta-based company’s 10-year anniversary as a proud NASCAR sponsor and staunch supporter of Stewart and Joe Gibbs Racing, a special paint scheme designed by one of The Home Depot’s 350,000 associates will adorn the No. 20 machine.
In a company-wide contest that began on Dec. 17, 2007 and ended on Jan. 18, 2008, Home Depot associates were encouraged to design the car that Stewart would drive March 9 at Atlanta. From a total of 351 entries, the winning design came from the pen of Scott Foreman, a Pro Desk Sales Associate who works at The Home Depot in Brighton, Colo.
“I am absolutely thrilled to have been chosen for this contest. It’s a dream of a lifetime for me,” said the 57-year-old Foreman, who will get to see his winning design in person as a VIP guest of the No. 20 Home Depot Racing Team at Atlanta. “I’ve been a race fan my entire life. I actually grew up around the local tracks in Denver since both my dad and uncle raced when I was young. I’ve been a NASCAR fan ever since they began televising races back in the black-and-white TV days. Naturally, I’ve been drawing race cars since I was a kid, too. So this prize means more to me than you could ever imagine. It really is the dream of a lifetime.”
A Pro Desk Sales Associate like Foreman bleeds orange, for they are on the front line of The Home Depot’s core customer – general contractors and do-it-yourselfers who view no home improvement project as too large.
“My inspiration for the design of the car came from my knowledge of The Home Depot and what the company stands for, along with my experience of what a race car should look like,” Foreman said. “I used the things that I’m familiar with in my everyday work at The Home Depot and the symbols that identify the company so well, namely the orange apron draped across the hood and the 10-Year Service Award since Tony has been driving The Home Depot car for 10 years now.”
The Home Depot entered NASCAR with a bang in 1999, as the world’s largest home improvement specialty retailer became the Official Home Improvement Warehouse of NASCAR. Augmenting that platform, The Home Depot also signed to sponsor a newly formed second team of Joe Gibbs Racing with a rookie crew chief and a rookie driver who had made a name for himself in open-wheel race cars but was still a stock car neophyte.
The partnership proved dynamic, as Stewart quickly showed that his four USAC championships and 1997 IRL IndyCar Series title would lead to championships in NASCAR.
With coaching administered by crew chief Greg Zipadelli, Stewart won the 1999 Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award on the heels of three wins and a fourth-place finish in the championship point standings. The wins kept coming in the seasons that followed and so did the championships, as Stewart, Zipadelli and the No. 20 Home Depot Racing Team scored titles in 2002 and 2005.
“When I first came to NASCAR, I just wanted to make it, let alone make it 10 years,” said Stewart, whose 10-year tenure with Zipadelli forms the longest active driver/crew chief relationship in NASCAR. “It makes me very, very proud of both my relationship with everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing and at The Home Depot. They’ve been a great company to work for, and hopefully, we go another 10 years. We’ve been through a lot of highs and a lot of lows, but at the end of the day, we’ve had a lot of fun and we’ve won a lot of races and won two championships. I think we’ve had a very successful first 10 years.”
“The Home Depot is very proud of its association with NASCAR, Tony Stewart, Greg Zipadelli and Joe Gibbs Racing,” said, John Ross, vice president, advertising for The Home Depot. “Our entry into NASCAR was driven by our associates, and at 350,000 strong, they have a very loud voice. Our relationship with Tony, Greg and everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing is a great source of pride for every Home Depot associate. Everyday at our 2,243 retail stores and each weekend at the race track, that pride is on display.”
Echoing that pride is Foreman, who along with his colleagues at Home Depot store No. 1547, are eagerly awaiting Sunday’s race at Atlanta.
“I can honestly say this is one of the proudest moments of my life, and the entire Home Depot team at the store where I work here in Brighton shares in that pride,” Foreman said. “We’re one of the smaller Home Depot stores in the Denver metro area, but big in heart and it shows in everything we do.”
About The Home Depot:
The Home Depot® is the world’s largest home improvement specialty retailer, with 2,243 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces, Mexico and China. In fiscal 2007, The Home Depot had sales of $77.3 billion and earnings from continuing operations of $4.2 billion. The Company employs approximately 350,000 associates. The Home Depot’s stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 index.
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Tuesday's talk with former champion Tony Stewart at Daytona International Speedway
Tony Stewart - Brave New World
Daytona-Sized Dose of Disappointment for Stewart
Ten Years Strong for The Home Depot® in NASCAR