Stewart docked 25 points and fined for bad language

 DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR announced Tuesday that Tony Stewart has been fined $25,000 and penalized 25 Nextel Cup Series driver championship points, as a result of using inappropriate language during a post-race televised interview following his victory Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Chevrolet, retains his fifth-place standing in the series points, with his total points reduced to 2,599.

Stewart violated Section 12-4-A of the series rule book (actions detrimental to stock car racing) by using the inappropriate language.

“This one’s for every one of those fans in the stands who pull for me every week and take all the [expletive] from everybody else,” Stewart said to an ESPN reporter as he began to walk away.

The curse spoiled ESPN’s return to NASCAR. Stewart is feuding with the network, which criticized him two weeks ago for saying he was going to drink a case of beer to celebrate his July 15 win in Chicago.

An ESPN analyst said later that Stewart was not a good role model, and Stewart has been reluctant to do interviews with its announcers. He participated in the post-race interview at the finish line, but it ended after he used the expletive.

He later criticized the network when asked if he would be celebrating the Indy win with another case of beer.

“I don’t want anybody from ESPN talking about how irresponsible I am, even though it’s legal to do everything I did,” he said. “Heaven forbid you actually have fun in life.”

In addition, Stewart’s car owner, Joe Gibbs, has been penalized 25 car owner championship points because of the infraction.

-NASCAR.com- 

Bad Luck Plagues ‘Kid Rocket’ During National Interstate Speedweek

SHINNSTON, WV – Josh Richards was hoping his recent back-to-back victories on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series were a sure sign the bad luck that’s been plaguing him had disappeared.

Well, judging by Josh’s frustrating three-race stretch on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series ‘National Interstate Speedweek,’ Lady Luck hasn’t come completely to his side.

After the scheduled opener of the mini-tour rained out on Wednesday night at Attica (Ohio) Raceway Park, the 19-year-old star from Shinnston, W.Va., experienced three difficult evenings of action in-a-row. He finished 11th in Thursday night’s 40-lap A-Main at Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway after being involved in an early tangle; placed 19th in Friday night’s ‘Subway 50’ at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, after mechanical trouble forced him to retire while running a strong second; and salvaged a seventh-place finish in Saturday night’s ‘Buckeye 50’ at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio, after surviving a hard heat-race accident.

The toughest fate for Josh to accept came at Eldora, where he was a serious contender to win the famed half-mile track’s first-ever WoO LMS event. He was third-fastest in time trials, drew the pole position for the A-Main, and passed Chub Frank for the lead on the third lap. Frank regained command on lap 17, but Josh hung tough and was fully engaged in a battle for the top spot with Chub when disaster struck. As Josh was circling the track under caution on lap 26, he had to steer his Mark Richards Racing-owned Seubert Calf Ranches/Ace Metal Works/TSR-Tony Stewart Racing/Petroff Towing/MCB Motorsports Rocket Chassis No. 1 into the pit area due to a broken jackshaft on its rearend.

“The track was so fast (after a rain delay), and there was some attrition,” said Josh. “So after Chub got by us, I was just trying to stay close to him without wearing my stuff out. Then all of a sudden, off (turn) two, it (the jackshaft) just snapped.

“I think I could’ve got back by him. Chub’s not gonna give an inch – he’ll run hard every lap – but I felt like I had a real good car. We just didn’t have any luck again – that’s racin’.”

Josh had no better fortune in his position as crew chief for NASCAR star Tony Stewart’s effort behind the wheel of the Tracker Boats/Bass Pro Shops Rocket dirt Late Model at Eldora. Josh watched from the pit area as Stewart’s bid for victory in the ‘Subway 50’ ended when he tangled with Frank on lap 40 while battling for the lead.

Accidents hampered Josh’s efforts in the other Speedweek events.

At the quarter-mile Lawrenceburg oval, Josh was swept up in a lap-one tangle in turn one with Scott James and Steve Shaver. He made a quick pit stop for hasty repairs, then made another stop during an ensuing red-flag period on lap one to fix the car more substantially. Josh’s crew went as far as welding the car’s left-front spindle back in place, but the machine was still bent as he persevered to finish 11th.

After rain caused a two-hour delay to the start of Saturday night’s Speedweek finale at Sharon, Josh ran into more trouble. His car’s left-rear tire rolled off the rim as he slid through turns one and two early in the third heat, causing him to spin and take a hard t-bone hit in the driver’s side door from Robbie Blair. Josh had the wind knocked out of him from the impact, but he was able to drive the car to the pits for repairs.

While Josh had to qualify through a B-Main, he made a steady move forward from the 20th starting spot to finish seventh in the ‘Buckeye 50’ – his only top-10 of National Interstate Speedweek.

Josh finished seventh in the National Interstate Speedweek points standings. He ended the swing ranked fourth in the overall WoO LMS points standings, 116 behind leader Steve Francis.

With the WoO LMS now idle until the Aug. 21-23 ‘Scorcher 100’ at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn., Josh had originally planned to spend his first free weekend racing in this weekend’s ‘USA Nationals’ at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis. But his team has decided to bypass the event in order to spend some time in the shop regrouping after a particularly strenuous stretch of summer competition.

With two cars damaged by wrecks over the weekend and Josh’s team seeking some extended time in the shop to get their equipment ready for the remainder of the 2007 season, the decision was made to take the 18-hour one-way haul to Cedar Lake off Josh’s schedule.

Josh’s next event will be the annual North-South 100 on Aug. 10-11 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky.

-Josh Richards Racing- 

NASCAR Eclectic: Need A Laugh??

Michael over at NASCAR Eclectic has posted a hilarious video that you have to go see.  NASCAR Coach Reveals Winning Strategy: ‘Drive Fast’

NASCAR Eclectic: Need A Laugh??

Joe James/Pat O’Connor Classic This Saturday at Salem

The 48th Annual Cardinal Contracting “Joe James/Pat O’Connor Classic,” honoring the memory of two of our sport’s more accomplished drivers, is slated this Saturday at the Salem (Ind.) Speedway and could be pivotal in the chase for USAC’s 2007 Lucas Oil National Sprint Car Championship. The USAC National Midgets share the billing Saturday, with a 30-lap Midget feature followed by the 50-lap Sprint car feature. The race is the last currently on the 2007 calendar for the National Sprint Cars on pavement.Tony Stewart Racing’s Levi Jones leads the series standings in quest of his second USAC title. His 100-point lead over Darren Hagen will not be challenged Saturday but Hagen could take a huge bite out of it with a strong performance. Hagen, of Riverside, Calif., is seeking his first National title.

Saturday’s event began at Salem in 1953. Larry Crockett won the inaugural race and in the ensuing years the list of winners is impressive, including Indianapolis 500 winners Bob Sweikert, A.J. Foyt, Parnelli Jones, Mario Andretti and Bobby Unser. O’Connor also won the event twice prior to his death in a 1958 racing accident.

Bryan Clauson is the defending race winner, while former champions Brian Tyler, Eric Gordon and Dave Darland are expected to seek repeat wins on Saturday.

Indianapolis Post Race Transcript

POST RACE TRANSCRIPT FEATURING WINNING TEAM:
TONY STEWART, DRIVER, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS
GREG ZIPADELLI, CREW CHIEF, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS
J.D. GIBBS, PRESIDENT, JOE GIBBS RACING
THE MODERATOR: We are pleased to be joined by our race winner of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet. His 31st victory in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series; second in a row. It’s his second victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, his second Brickyard win.

Tony, how does it feel to win another Brickyard?

TONY STEWART: Oh, man, this one I’m going to remember a lot more of it, for sure, afterwards. But, no, it is still like a dream. The first one was great, but there was so much going around it, being the first one. Both races were special. Neither of the wins outweighs the other win. I mean, to race one of my good friends Kasey Kahne for the first one and a very close friend, Kevin Harvick, for this one, I couldn’t think of two other guys I’d rather race for the win here than that.
We had the fastest car today. It was consistent all day long. The guys had great pit stops. It was just like Chicago except on the restarts we were real vulnerable on the restarts. Three times I went down into one and got really tight on a restart for some unknown reason. I kept trying to keep scrubbing the tires, making sure they were cleaned off. For some reason, we’d go down in there and get tight. We were fine after that. But it let Kevin get by us.

I was confident that we could get back to him and I thought in my mind, I mean, I really believed we could get by him again ’cause we’d done it the run before. But we got up to him and actually dropped back away from him a little bit. I thought, man, this may or may not happen. It was just a matter of trying to get the timing right, get the runs right, get a good run on him to where we could get a run down the straightaway.

The motor was awesome. We could draft up to him and get underneath him going into three. That was my strong point. Kevin got really smart and changed how he was driving turn two and got to where I wasn’t getting as big a run as I was before. Had to do something different. I’d been lifting earlier. He had been driving in deeper than I had. Just the differences in setups let us drive our cars different than each other.

I tried to go in hard with him once and see what happened, and I got up to him and he got tight, I guess, in one. We got underneath him. I just squeezed him a little bit, not on purpose, but I got too close to him I guess, ran into him in the short chute. It was a really cool, almost like a slide job, countermove, him getting back underneath me. It was a drag race down the backstretch. Whoever got through turn three was probably going to win the race at that point.

THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by crew chief Greg Zipadelli and J.D. Gibbs from Joe Gibbs Racing.

Greg, talk about your thoughts and emotions about winning here again today.

GREG ZIPADELLI: It’s just awesome, like one step better than Loudon, but I can’t wait to go back to Loudon anyway (laughter).

This place is just so special. To be part of our second victory, to know what it means to Tony growing up here, racing here in the past, open-wheel cars and things, it was just awesome.

My team did a good job today. Pit stops were good. The car was good. And Tony did a phenomenal job.

THE MODERATOR: J.D., your thoughts? Has to be a big weekend for y’all.

J.D. GIBBS: Yeah, no. I think for us, when you went through it a couple years ago, when Tony won the first time, you kind of realize how many people are here, how many fans he has here, what this means to him personally. I think that was a big deal for our guys. I know it was the first time and it was this time around. Last time was nerve wracking, but you forget because this time it was nerve wracking, waiting those last few laps.

I think Zippy did a great job. It’s rare that you have a really good car all weekend long, be able to capitalize and good smoothly. From what I can tell, the guys did a great job, Zippy and Tony. It ended the way it started, good the whole time through, and wound up with a victory. A big credit to those guys, as much work as they put into it.

THE MODERATOR: As I mentioned, this is their second consecutive win in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series, seventh time this race team has posted back-to-back wins, a strong testament to the strength of this race team.
Q. Anything can happen next week. The way you are running now, do you feel you’re getting into your zone at this point in the season? Nobody else seems to be stepping out. You seem to be stepping up.

TONY STEWART: Man, it just seems like a normal year. This time of year, it seems like we get hot. We’ve even tried to sit down and figure out what we miss in the spring.

But I don’t know. I mean, it’s like you said, the seventh time I guess we’ve had back-to-back wins. It just seems this time of year when the tracks get hot and slippery, and I prayed for a day like today. I wanted it to be hot. I wanted it to be sunny, to where the track would get a little slippery versus yesterday morning where it was like speed runs all day.

This place gets a different personality when it gets slick. It does that in the IndyCar race. It does that in the Brickyard 400, too. It seems like when it starts getting slick, that’s when we really excel at this place. When it’s got a lot of grip, everybody’s fast. It’s just a matter of who hits the perfect setup.

Just seems like when it gets slick, the way that Zippy, the setups he gives me, my driving style, they match each other, but it just seems like our cars, we’re never really good at the front of a run, but it seems like 15 laps into a run, here we come.

I didn’t want a caution. I didn’t want that last caution to come out. But I was somewhat glad, I was hoping and cautiously optimistic it was hopefully the last caution, that we would have 20 laps to run. 20 laps at Bristol or Martinsville is nothing. That flies by. 20 laps here is a long, long run.

I was cautiously optimistic that if anything happened, we were going to have time to get back what we lost. Like I said, I went down into one, got tight, we were able to fight our way back.

But, yeah, I mean, I hope you’re right. You look at somebody, and somebody I feel bad for right now honestly is Jimmie Johnson. This guy can’t buy a break. But for a year and a half, he couldn’t do anything wrong either. We couldn’t get a break in the first half of the year, maybe it’s changing now and maybe we can get on our own run of our own, just like he’s done for the last year and a half.
Q. Zippy, you said something in the radio interview after the race that this is the smartest race you’ve ever seen Tony run. Given his history here, where he’s been very high and very low, how do you see the change in Tony?

GREG ZIPADELLI: I’m proud of him. The way the pit stops go, track position here is so much. We’ve had good race cars here. We didn’t do a good job of controlling track position in the past. It’s something that we’ve done a better job over the past couple years, I think. We talked about it before we started the race today. He was patient when people stayed out or people took two and we felt, you know, like we needed four. If we did get a caution late, I wanted to be able to put two on. We had two on the stop before.

It’s just the cycle. But, you know, we did a good job. Kept the fenders on the car. Our pit stops were good. The whole team did a great job today.
Q. Tony, your personality and your mood swings makes you.

TONY STEWART: Why do you keep bringing that up? Can we all just agree to get over that part and let history be history finally?
Q. You’re easy to read. On Friday a lot of us who went to your availability walked away and were like, He’s going to win, because the way you were coming across, you were calm. The stress was gone. Do you ever feel that way? I know I’m going to win this?

TONY STEWART: No, I can’t say I know we’re going to win. You never know till you get into the race. You never know what’s going to happen. Especially after the first half of the year where we had days, like Bristol, after 250 laps, I’m like, If somebody doesn’t come up with a miracle here, we’re going to win this thing and lead all but 20 laps of this race because nobody has anything for us, then something bad happened.

You never get it in your mind that that’s what’s going to happen. You know, I think coming from Chicago, knowing we were bringing him, and I joked about it, we debated between two cars of what to bring back. I wanted the car that we didn’t run. Zippy, that’s why he’s the crew chief and I’m the driver. He puts the name on it, I get in the one that has my name on it, that’s the one I drive that weekend.

It’s just the situation. I think we felt so good after Chicago, breaking the ice for the year, knew that we were going to bring one of two cars that were virtually identical here for this weekend, knowing that history.

We pay attention to history like you guys do. Knowing it seems like this time of year, once we get that first win, they come right after each other. That made the weekend off more fun. It gave us confidence coming in. It’s almost non-realistic to even say we had momentum just after one race. But we did. We carried momentum for two solid weeks. Having that week off, we got to carry something a week longer than we normally get to. I think that led into this week.

I mean, being able to get away, have fun for a couple days, do stuff that we wanted to do, versus somebody telling us we have to go do something today, makes a big difference coming in here. Amazing what a week away from each other will do. Hope it’s not that way with marriage. If so, I’d have to take off every other week. Maybe that’s why I’m 36 and not married, too.

But just getting away from each other, having that week to do fun stuff. I mean, I got to do fun things. When you come off a week like that, you’re pumped up. You come to what to me is my biggest race of the year, the moon and the stars aligned, I guess. There were a lot of positive variables.
Q. While everybody seemed to be talking about tire wear, being worried about that yesterday, you said you were one of the few teams that really didn’t have a concern with that. When you were hearing everybody worry about that and wondering how the start of the race was going to go? Were you feeling like this could be a good week for you because you didn’t have the same problems that people were complaining about?

TONY STEWART: It’s kind of funny. Some of you we already brought this up with yesterday. I didn’t even know people were having tire issues till I got done with my qualifying run. We were done for the day, I did the media bullpen yesterday. That’s when people in the media were asking me questions about tire wear. That’s the first I knew of anything. I didn’t know of anybody having any problems.

Zippy never mentioned tire wear at all during the practice session. But probably the best part about it was after that first run when we came in, he said there wasn’t a mark, there wasn’t anything wrong with our tires on both of those first two runs. That gives you the confidence. I ran pretty hard those first two runs, but not abusing the tires. I knew if I had to run a hundred percent, I wasn’t going to do something that was going to get us in a bind tire wear-wise.

Any time you can eliminate a variable from your worry list, that’s obviously one more thing you can concentrate on that way.
Q. Two years ago when you won this race, you could hear the tension in your voice when you were talking on the radio. Today even when Harvick passed you, you’re doing your Here kitty, kitty thing. Drinking from the water bottle. This place used to be the place where things always seemed to go wrong for you. Are you more relaxed now because you’ve made your peace with it?

TONY STEWART: Yeah, honestly it was. And I think that’s why I’ll enjoy this one more than the first one. The first one was just like taking the weight of the world off your shoulders. We talked about it two years ago. When you grow up 45 miles from here, a period of my life when I was driving a wrecker for a living, I was driving down 16th Street and Georgetown Road, thinking, Man, what would it be like to be 150 yards inside that fence, running 200 miles an hour?

I got to do that. Then I got to come here in a stock car, then win it for the first time. That was such a weight off our shoulders.

But it was just the whole day. Everybody knew how much it was like taking a weight off of us. So that’s all we did till 9:00 that night, every media thing, it was like whew. Today we’re just like happy now. That’s probably what helped us today, not being wound up, being able to be calm and relaxed, ’cause it wasn’t like the untouchable any more. We got it two years ago. Being able to be calm, just race. I mean, it was race the race those last 10 laps. It wasn’t like my whole life depends on whether I pass this one car in front of me or not. It wasn’t that kind of situation.

It was like a life-or-death situation for me two years ago. I can’t say it was a normal week, because it wasn’t. It’s never a normal race. But when it came to racing Kevin, the same guy I drive a Busch car for, 10 laps to go, the starter still gives 10 fingers for 10 laps to go. It was easier to put it in perspective, calm down, do what I needed to do, race the race versus saying my whole life depends on this next 15 laps like it was two years ago.
Q. After the race on ESPN you dedicated the victory to your fans who get some heat in the stands week in, and week out. What kind of heat do you think they get?

TONY STEWART: I don’t know. Cross over the fence there, there’s a bunch of them still over there. You go outside this door and you’ll have plenty of them to talk to. You can ask them.
Q. I was wondering what you thought.

TONY STEWART: You have to ask those guys. They know better than I do.

I just know at times, it’s probably that way with everybody, but I know my fans take heat from other fans probably more than most. That’s my fault. You know, days like today are days that when you repay them with a win at the Brickyard, dedicating it to them, that’s the payback for those people.
Q. What does it mean to you to win in front of so many?

TONY STEWART: I didn’t care if there wasn’t anybody in the stands. I just wanted to win the race. I don’t care if there’s four people or four million people here; I’m going to race to win the race.

Every time you take the lead, go out for qualifying, driver introductions, come around that last lap, I mean, all I wanted to do is get to the white flag. I knew I had a big enough lead I could make four big corners and lose a second and not get even close to getting passed. If the caution came out, I wasn’t going to get in a situation where I had to do a restart.

You know, I got a chance to see the crowd. I mean, seeing those people cheer that last lap, I mean, there was no way anything was going to happen then. That makes it so special. That’s what makes that last lap here so special versus anywhere else you go. I mean, those people know you got to make four good corners, but they’re cheering that last lap like this is yours, this is yours, all you got to do is get around one more time. We all celebrate.
That’s what makes it so much fun for me.
Q. Last time you won here it was like Indiana Palooza, like the whole state of Indiana celebrated that day. I’m sure they’re happy again today. Your whole life wasn’t those last 15 laps, as you said. Will winning here ever become, as Zippy said in jest at Chicago, just another week for you? Will it ever become business at usual for you?

TONY STEWART: Will getting up in the morning, going to the buffet, seeing pancakes, bacon, waffles and sausage ever be normal to you? Pretty much it is. I say that with the utmost respect. He knows what I’m talking about. I think you know what I mean.

See, I’ve known some of you guys long enough to know how to say it in a way that you won’t a hundred percent understand (laughter).
Q. Your father told me at the beginning of the day that you were going to win; he felt it.

TONY STEWART: He’s getting old and senile. He says a lot of things that just don’t make sense some days.
Q. Seeing you drive the pace car in, kiss the bricks with the team, your niece and nephew in the car, says something about your family. Last year your dad was up in the suite area. Talk about the family, your dad thinking you were going to win, that pace lap with your niece and nephew.

TONY STEWART: It just adds to this place being a special place. My best friends are here. My family is here. People that I don’t get to see very often are all at one place at one time together to watch me do what I do best, to do what I’m passionate about.

When you’re passionate about something, you want your family to be around it, involved. You want your friends to be a part of it, see you do it. Having the suite over there, I mean, I could see my dad. I could see my dad on the third floor this year. It’s like, good grief, this guy is going to haunt me for 160 laps again.

I’ll be perfectly honest, I remember when I made a mistake last year he was trying to get me to calm down. I just was fearful the first time I made a mistake in that corner what was going to happen when I came around, the sign he was going to give me to calm down. I tried every time I made a mistake not to even look up there.

It’s just neat. It’s not me. It’s more than me. It’s me. It’s Zippy. It’s J.D. It’s Home Depot. It’s the team. It’s my family. When they can be a part of it, and you can see as the day goes on how emotional they get. I can look up there and see how nervous he is by what he’s doing, how he’s acting up there. You can tell. I can tell also when I was a kid when I was going to get my butt beat. You just learn things like that.

But that’s what makes it so special is when your family can be a part of it. There’s not many places where you can actually pick individuals out in a crowd at a racetrack. That suite area over there is pretty neat and special.
Q. 20 years from now your niece and nephew will have a picture coming in and kissing the bricks with you.

TONY STEWART: If I live that long, it would be awesome to talk to them about it.
Q. You said you come in more relaxed this time. That enables you to slip out to Eldora Friday night. What was that like? Was it tough at the end?

TONY STEWART: I got to see the crowd really good as I was sliding down the front stretch wall facing them head-on. Zippy and J.D., especially with the Carl Edwards thing this week, everybody keeps bringing up the issue of should we all be allowed to do this. The only way you’re going to keep race car drivers from getting hurt are to lock them in a rubber room, transport them in a rubber room to the car, let us get out of that and get into the car. That’s the only way you’re going to keep us safe a hundred percent of the time.

Somebody asked me what I thought about that. I said, did anybody get hurt in car accidents last weekend in the United States? There were more people that got hurt in car accidents than got hurt in race cars last weekend. Does that mean we shouldn’t drive a car?

J.D. GIBBS: I will say that’s the first I heard of that, you flying up head-first.

TONY STEWART: It was okay. If there was anything wrong, I would have called you.

J.D. GIBBS: I carry the same weight my dad did, which is none (laughter).

TONY STEWART: Yeah, you do. I got to get my paycheck from you.

No, you got to remember, I’m the person that perfected this thing: It’s a lot easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

J.D. GIBBS: It’s Zippy’s responsibility. I just work here.

TONY STEWART: It was fun. Got to go over there. I won the World of Outlaw late model race. My goal Friday was just to make the A Main, which was the total opposite of what we wanted to do here. Went out, almost broke the track record, we were two-hundredths off a second off the track record there, won our heat. Pulled what I thought was a really beautiful slide job for the lead with 10 to go in a 50-lap main. At the end, didn’t end up being clear somehow. Got turned nose first in the wall, watched the whole front end of the car get folded up. But everything was good. I didn’t get hurt, so you can sleep good now.

But that’s fun. That’s stuff I do. You know, when I first started, Joe and J.D. and even Zippy were really nervous about it every week. And I understood their side of it. You get one chance to live this lifetime. I’ve just always been a guy that’s raced any time I could race. I had a chance to race last night. I learned to meet these two guys and the team halfway on stuff. There’s races I want to go run and I don’t go run because I know I have a big weekend coming up. I ran Friday night knowing I had last night to get rested up, get ready for today. I could have ran last night, but I chose not to do that because I respect these guys and respect what this race means to me.

GREG ZIPADELLI: So it was the race more than us?

TONY STEWART: No. It wasn’t the race more than you guys. I think if you look at how many Cup drivers that normally run the Busch Series that took nights off last night, I think that will put an impression on how much this race means to everybody. You look at the guys that typically go run a Busch Grand National race on Saturday that didn’t run this weekend, that tells the story right there, in my opinion.
Q. Six of the last nine winners here went on to win the championship, including the last two. You were one of them.

TONY STEWART: I remember that. I was here for the whole thing. Thanks for pointing that out.
Q. Are you now the favorite for the title?

TONY STEWART: I don’t know.
Q. On Friday you said you weren’t.

TONY STEWART: It’s hard. There’s still a lot of racing to go. There’s no guarantees. But it’s neat knowing that the last two guys that have won this race have won the championship. Am I going to be upset about that fact?
Absolutely not. Am I going to be excited about it? Ubetcha. But does that mean it’s a shoo-in? I wouldn’t mortgage my house on it yet. I might with one race to go, depending on what the points standings look like. Might not have to take as good odds, but I might take that bet.
Q. Two years ago the old man in the extra you hat greeted you when you crossed the finish line. Is he still there today?

TONY STEWART: Oh, yeah. He’s talking with Glen, who I ran the Sprint cars for. He lived just north of Columbus.
Days like today are when you remember the guys that helped you get to these places. It’s the Roy Barkers, Ralph Potters, Bobby, Steve Lewis, all the guys that get you here, and everybody that spent all night working on the race car so you could go run for less money than what it cost to run the car the next day.

It’s for those guys, for the race fans. This is the payoff at the end of the rainbow. This is what makes those guys feel good that they spent that money and stayed up fixing cars that I crashed the night before so we could race them the next night.

I can promise you the way I drove this race today is one he would be very proud of. Lessons I learned from him helped today.
Q. Off-topic subject. Indiana State is in the works to bring together a motorsport minor. Knowing you didn’t attend college…

TONY STEWART: I spent a lot of time at ISU. I just wasn’t enrolled in college. But I spent a lot more time up there than Indiana State even knows.
Q. Knowing this is a culmination of a business school, school of technology, would that have been an incentive for you to attend school? Having taken classes in that school of business, knowing you have become a product as a driver, would that have assisted you in becoming a better businessman than what you are?

TONY STEWART: I promise you, it would have made me a heck of a lot better businessman than I am because I am not a businessman. I had to hire someone that knew what they were doing. That was the downfall of not going to college. I had to make a decision and I had to decide whether I was going to pursue a racing career, a driving career, or whether I was going to go to school and learn a trade.

It’s kind of like putting all your eggs in one basket. I don’t recommend everybody to go out and say, I’m not going to go to school. You better have, like we talked, good odds in your favor that it’s going to work.

Like I said, I spent a lot of time there. I watched kids that dedicated their time, most of their time, some of their time to studying. I spent the time when they were away from class.

Yeah, I mean, Indiana State is an awesome school. I know a lot of people and have a lot of friends that graduated from Indiana State and they have good jobs. Having that to where they can be involved in racing like this now, I mean, I’d love for some of my buddies to have, I don’t know if I’d want all my buddies working for me, be without friends after a while, but I think it’s a neat place. I think it’s something that would be good for the sport for sure. It definitely makes you say, Hey, this makes sense if you want to be involved in racing, do it from the business side.
Q. You talked earlier about the passion. Is it your passion, is that the reason the fans follow you so intently?

TONY STEWART: That’s the reason the fans that pull for us pull for us. There’s 43 guys every weekend. People pull for some, boo others. There’s a reason that each person pulls and boos for whichever ones they pull for and boo for.

My fans like us because we call a spade a spade. We wear our emotions on our shoulders. Never have to wonder where you stand with us. We’re not going to give the vanilla answer. We are going to be us. The people that appreciate that are Tony Stewart fans. The people that want the corporate image, clean cut, short hair, no beard, they pull for somebody else. It is that way. That’s the beautiful thing about America: you have the right to choose who you want. Today I don’t think we were lacking too many people up there. I was pretty happy with the number of people that supported us.
Q. You mentioned how important it was to get away, have some fun. On the Tony Stewart scale of fun, does any of that stuff remotely compare to the fun you have on a day like today?

TONY STEWART: No, absolutely not. I mean, this is what my life has revolved around for the last 20 years of my life, is running a race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Not to say that what I did on the off weekend wasn’t fun. But still in the back of my mind, even on that off weekend, I knew what was coming up. I was getting ready for this even on the off weekend. I wish I could say it was as much fun because if I could go outside and have this much fun every day, I’d never be upset about anything.
Q. After the race when you spoke with ESPN you didn’t say that your fans take a lot of heat, you said they take a lot of bullshit. Last time a profanity was used on TV with Dale Earnhardt, he was fined, all that. Are you at all concerned?

TONY STEWART: A little late to be concerned about it now, isn’t it? It pretty much is what it is.

Whatever happens, they still can’t take this trophy away from me today. Whatever happens, happens.
Q. Upgrade from Schlitz last night?

TONY STEWART: No. It was a full-on manhunt to find it. I don’t want anybody from ESPN talking about how irresponsible I am, even though it’s legal to do everything I did. Heaven forbid you actually have fun in life.
Q. In ‘98 when Earnhardt won the Daytona 500, there was a caution flag at the end of the race. Some people said Earnhardt might not have won the race if it went to the end. I say Bobby Labonte would have had to beat him into the dog track to beat him. Today, second time, 10 laps to go, you get out of turn one, next to Kevin Harvick. Any way on God’s green earth you would have given him some room or whatever euphemism you want to come up with? What would it have taken for you to let off the throttle one-eighth of one percent in that situation?

TONY STEWART: As much as you probably won’t believe this, it wouldn’t have meant anything if I would have crashed him to win the race. He wouldn’t do that to me. I think, I mean, the last couple years we’ve had a couple instances with a couple guys that everybody questioned my tactics. Those people I don’t have problems with any more. The people that I raced around today raced me with respect. I raced them with respect.

I work really hard because if I’m going to preach about give and take, it’s stupid for me to not do the same thing. If I want people to race me with respect, I’m going to race people with respect. Like I said, I didn’t mean to get into Kevin. That wasn’t my intention. I didn’t have to do that. That could have screwed me up, could have cut a tire down more than it would have accomplished to get into him. There was no logical reason to get into him. That was a mistake on my part.

But would I, with 10 laps to go, crash somebody just to win the Brickyard 400? No, it’s not worth it. When you have those people that follow you up there say, Why did he do it that way, it means nothing at that point. Doesn’t mean anything to him. Doesn’t mean anything to him. Wouldn’t mean anything to me to do it that way. It’s not the right way. If I would have done it the wrong way, it would have ruined winning it.
Q. Greg, you were talking about the tires not being a factor. It was a really wild, weekend with the rain, three-hour practice. People were fried after practice. Stress on the teams through the weekend. Not a lot of racing at the beginning of the weekend. Can you talk about that? Your team always seems to survive without worrying about stuff like that.

GREG ZIPADELLI: Yeah, it’s whenever you sit around for 10, 12 hours and don’t accomplish anything, I think that’s worse than working hard and steady for eight hours. You know what I mean? Mentally you’re working. We were prepared to do a lot of things. Everything we prepared, we didn’t accomplish.

Saturday morning we had to kind of change our game plan. We thought it was going to be an impound race. You have to change your thought process a little bit.

The tires I don’t think were as big an issue as it was made out to be. Last two years we have seen the same exact thing. We’ve been here to tire test last year twice. We could only run six to 10 laps. By the end of the day, you could run a full run and everything was fine.
Q. Tony, you won here twice in the fendered cars.

TONY STEWART: Don’t do this to me here. We’ve dodged this for a long time today. Go ahead.
Q. Two years ago we thought you might have had a shot in an A.J. Foyt car. What are your thoughts?

TONY STEWART: Why do you want to make J.D. mad after I just won a big race?
Q. Is that part of your consideration with J.D.? Is that something you are discussing?

TONY STEWART: We need Indy to work with us on that one ’cause there’s no way that we can get, just hear me out here, with the time change being changed two hours, no way you can finish Indy and get down in time to start the 600. My obligation is to this race team and Home Depot, all the guys at our shop.

I’ve learned to never say never. I told the people at Chevy, I’m not going to say I’m never going to be back here in an IndyCar. There’s a lot of things that have to happen for that to happen. It’s not just as easy as saying, Yeah, I want to do it. There’s just way too many variables that play into making something like that happen. It’s not just, Hey, call up Chip Ganassi or Roger Penske and say, I want to drive a car for you. Okay, we’ve got a car, so show up.

There’s so many details. We learned that over two years of trying it, there’s a lot of things that absolutely time-wise and logistics-wise have to be absolutely perfect. The way it’s set up now, it’s not feasible to do it now.

Down the road, anything can happen. I’m not going to say that I won’t be back here in an IndyCar one day. I got business to finish with these guys and goals with these guys that I want to accomplish before I come back to do that. This is where I’m at right now.

Stewart on a roll with 2nd Indy win

Joe Gibbs Racing -After having endured 11 disappointments at Indy – six in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series and five in the IRL IndyCar Series – before finally winning in a stock car at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2005, Tony Stewart only had to wait a year and 209 days to score his second victory in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

The Columbus, Ind.-native led seven times for a race-high 65 laps en route to the dominating win, as Stewart drove his No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet across the finish line 2.982 seconds ahead of 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner and Nextel Cup rookie Juan Pablo Montoya.

“This one I’m going to remember. It’s like a dream,” said Stewart, whose Allstate 400 win in 2005 lifted a weight off his shoulders and allowed him to answer the question, ‘How would it feel to win at Indy?’ “The first one was great, but there was so much going around it, being the first one. Both races were special. Neither of the wins outweighs the other win. To race one of my good friends, Kasey Kahne, for the first one and a very close friend, Kevin Harvick, for this one, I couldn’t think of two other guys I’d rather race for the win here than that.”

Stewart had the fastest car on the 2.5-mile oval, but Harvick was fast too. The two drivers engaged in a spirited battle following a restart on lap 140, and it didn’t end until Stewart was able to seize the lead for good on lap 151 of the 160-lap race.

“It was just like Chicago, except we were real vulnerable on the restarts,” said Stewart, alluding to his win at the previous Nextel Cup race. “Three times I went down into (turn) one and got really tight on a restart for some unknown reason. I kept trying to scrub the tires, making sure they were cleaned off. But for some reason, we’d go down in there and get tight. We were fine after that, but it let Kevin get by us.

“I was confident that we could get back to him. I really believed we could get by him again because we’d done it the run before. But we got up to him and actually dropped back away from him a little bit. I thought, ‘Man, this may or may not happen.’ It was just a matter of trying to get the timing right, and get a good run on him to where we could get a run down the straightaway.

“The motor was awesome. We could draft up to him and get underneath him going into (turn) three. That was my strong point. Kevin got really smart and changed how he was driving turn two and got to where I wasn’t getting as big a run as I was before. So, I had to do something different. I’d been lifting earlier. He had been driving in deeper than I had. Just the differences in setups let us drive our cars different from each other.

“I tried to go in hard with him once and see what happened, and I got up to him and he got tight, I guess, in (turn) one. We got underneath him. I just squeezed him a little bit, not on purpose, but I got too close to him and ran into him in the short chute. It was a really cool, almost like a slide job, countermove, him getting back underneath me. It was a drag race down the backstretch. Whoever got through turn three was probably going to win the race at that point.”

It was Stewart who emerged out front off turn three, allowing him to take his second consecutive Nextel Cup victory, a feat the nine-year Nextel Cup driver has performed seven times since entering the series as a rookie in 1999.

“For us to be able to win at Indy a second time is just the real deal,” said Greg Zipadelli, the crew chief for Stewart since their debut at Daytona (Fla.) in February 1999. “He has matured so much. He drove like I can’t even tell you. It was a phenomenal race today. I’m proud of him. I’m proud of this whole team. These guys back home work hard and this is the second time out with this car and we’ve won with it.”

The new car that debuted July 15 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. – Chassis No. 143 – is now two-for-two, as The Home Depot-sponsored Joe Gibbs Racing Team took the off-weekend and turned it around to compete at Indianapolis.

“We debated about which two cars we should bring back,” said Stewart, recounting a pre-Indy conversation he had with Zipadelli regarding whether to take Chassis No. 143 or another proven chassis that won three races last year and led over 630 laps. “I wanted the car that we didn’t run. That’s why he’s the crew chief and I’m the driver. I get in the one that has my name on it and that’s the one I drive that weekend.”

Stewart’s Indy drive bumped him up one spot to fifth in the championship point standings, where he is 452 points behind series leader Jeff Gordon. But Gordon should beware. Six times during the previous 13 times NASCAR has visited Indy, the winner has gone onto to win the championship, a feat that Stewart pulled in 2005 when he recorded his second series title.

Hines Benefit A Huge Success

NEW CASTLE, Ind. — Mt Lawn Speedway was the site of a Tracy Hines benefit Saturday night July 28th. The benefit was the brainchild of Roger Claywell of New Castle a long time friend of the entire Hines family. With the help of Jack Neal of Motion Motors, Mike Johnson of Razzles, Alan Troxell of Tri County Plumbing, Alex Burke of the Ice House Tavern, Rick Sweigart of Mt Lawn, Carquest of New Castle, all of the auction participants and contributors at the track a grand total of $21,590 was collected and presented to Tracy during festivities at the track.

During post presentation interviews trackside the entire Hines family including Tracy, wife Christa, Mom and Dad Faye and Jim and brother Ted expressed sincere thanks to all that made the day a big success for the New Castles own Tracy Hines.

source: Mt. Lawn Speedway 

Frank Wins Buckey 50 at Sharon Speedway

by Tony Mancuso

HARTFORD, Ohio — Chub Frank darted under Jeremy Miller on lap No. 45 on his way to scoring the victory in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series Buckeye 50 on the 3/8-mile oval at Sharon Speedway. “Chubzilla” led the money laps to score the $10,000 prize.

After 38 late models signed into the pit area and a two hour rain delay, Robbie Scott, who owns the Sharon Speedway late model track record set on Aug. 12, 2006 (15.383 sec.), set the quickest time in qualifying. Scott lapped the Hartford oval in 15.539 sec. (86.878 MPH), which gave him his first career World of Outlaws Late Model Series fast time. Tim Fuller was second in time trials (15.682 sec.), with Josh Richards third (15.724 sec.), Jason Covert fourth (15.748 sec.) and Donnie Moran fifth (15.753 sec.). The fastest four qualifiers garnered the pole for their respective heat races.

The top two finishers in the heat races earned a slot in the redraw for the top eight starting spots in the feature. In the heats, Moran, “The Million Dollar Man”, led all 10 laps in heat No. 1 to take the victory. Doug Horton crossed the line in second spot. In the second heat, Fuller maintained his pace from qualifying to score the heat race victory. Rick “Boom” Briggs finished second, which put him in the top eight redraw.

The third heat race was halted with two laps in the books when Richards, while leading spun his No. 1 machine in front of the field. Robbie Blair was in the wrong place at the wrong time in the incident, as he slammed into Richards’ nearly-stationary car. Despite the heavy impact, both drivers climbed out of their cars uninjured. Following the red flag, Darrell Lanigan scored the victory and Steve Francis was second. Jeremy Miller and Frank - “Chubzilla” - were the top two finishers, respectively, in the fourth and final late model heat.

The final six starting spots for the feature were filled in the two B-Mains. Shane Clanton, Matt Urban and Dutch Davies finished in the top three spots in the first B-Main. Brian Shirley, Richards and Rick Eckert, who won the 2006 Buckeye 50 at Sharon Speedway, advanced into the feature in second B-Main.

With the preliminary races in the books, the stage was set for the 50-lap showdown for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. Francis, who is the current point leader, drew the pole position for the feature in the redraw. Miller started alongside Francis in the feature after drawing the No. 2 starting spot. Those two drivers paced the field to the green in the Buckeye 50, with Lanigan and “Chubzilla” occupying the second row. Francis led the first circuit, but Miller powered his way to the top spot before the second lap was scored. Frank slotted into second on the fourth lap, and moved in on the rear of Miller’s No. 24M machine. Frank stuck his nose under Miller just as the yellow flag flew on the ninth lap.

On the restart, Miller led Frank, Francis, Horton and Dave Scott. Miller jetted out to a 10 car-length lead, once again, as the field powered back up. Francis wheeled around Frank in Turn One on the 20th lap after “Chubzilla” caught a rut and briefly slowed. Frank returned the favor two laps later when Francis caught a rough spot, which caused him to relinquish second back to the No. 1* of Frank. Moran moved steadily through the field in the first half of the race after starting eight. The Dresden, Ohio native was third with 25 laps to go. He did not stop there, as he slid under Frank out of Turn Four one lap later to take second. Horton also followed Moran around Frank to move into third. The field slowed when the caution flag flew with a pair of cars slow on the oval after 27 laps.

Before the cars restarted, Miller led Moran, Horton, Frank and Francis. Moran saw the restart as his best opportunity to make a move on Miller. He attempted to stick his nose under Miller on the single-file restart, but Miller maintained his edge. Moran has his No. 99 machine hooked up on the bottom of the oval, while Miller found grip on the high side of the Hartford dirt. Behind the leaders, Francis found his way back around Frank for third spot with 15 laps remaining. However, “Chubzilla” was not done there. He closed back on Francis on lap No. 42, and ultimately drove under him. One lap later, Frank used the bottom once again to snag second spot away from Moran on the bottom of Turn Four. An Eckert spin on the 44th circuit was the opportunity Frank was looking for.

He was strong on restarts all night long, and the late restart was no different. “Chubzilla” found some grip on the bottom of Turn Two on lap No. 45. He carried that momentum into Turn Three as he and Miller raced side-by-side. Frank used the grip on the bottom to snag the lead. Frank drove five flawless laps and went on to take the Buckeye 50. Moran also found his way around Miller to finish second. Miller led more than 40 laps, and drove a great race to finish third. Francis and Lanigan rounded out the top five finishers. Clint Smith was sixth, Richards seventh, Tim Fuller eighth, Shane Clanton ninth and Horton wound up 10th.

Good finish, bad finish Saturday night at Belleville

Saturday night saw good results for Levi Jones as he ran 2nd to Jerry Coons, Jr. and moved into 5th place in the national midget standings.

Things  didn’t go quite as well for points leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr.  During the feature Ricky tangled with Cody Brewer on lap 19 resulting in both of them flipping. He wound up finishing 21st and dropped from leading the standings to 3rd place.

NEW NATIONAL MIDGET CAR POINTS: 1-Hagen-566; 2-Coons-561; 3-Stenhouse-531; 4-Kuhn-476; 5-Jones-475; 6-Darland-459; 7-Swindell-404; 8-Bacon-349; 9-Bobby East-306; 10-Ray-286.

McCarl Wins Thriller at K-C Raceway

By Tony Veneziano

Terry McCarl recently took on the nickname, “TV Terry” after the success he has had during the “SuperClean Summer of Money” on ESPN2, as well as the quick wit and stage presence that he possesses when the tapes are rolling. He won the opening race of the eight-race mini-series last month at Knoxville Raceway, and on Saturday night at K-C Raceway, held off a furious charge from Donny Schatz to earn his second win of the “SuperClean Summer of Money” and second overall win on the season.

On a track that traditionally produces two and three-wide racing, McCarl and Schatz kept the fans on their feet for the last 10 laps of the event. McCarl took the lead on the 33rd lap and withstood two late cautions to earn the $10,000 triumph. Schatz looked high and then low lap-after-lap trying to get a run on the leader. He inched ahead several times but each and every time at the line, McCarl was officially scored the leader from the 33rd until the final lap.

The event was shown on ESPN2 on Sunday, July 29 at Noon Eastern, 11 a.m. Central.

“The television cameras must keep me motivated,” smiled McCarl, driver of the Big Game Treestands Eagle, in Victory Lane after doing donuts on the back straightaway. “It is great to win in front of them. I had a great car all night. We timed in well and then were fast in the heat and won that. That put us in a good position.”

Paul McMahan paced the 47 cars that took time with an AMB i.t. timed lap around the high-banked 3/8-mile oval in 11.578 seconds at 116.600 mph.

McMahan ran third in his heat race finishing behind Terry McCarl and Chad Kemenah.

The Crane Cams Dash saw McMahan finish 9th out of the 10 starters.

In the A Main McMahan finished 12th.