NASCAR Driver Tony Stewart: The Picture Of Contentment

By Anne Proffit

Anne Proffit

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Anne Proffit has worked in the automotive field since - well, not telling you that. She's been a car salesperson (before it was popular to hire... More

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1,772 views Feb 16, 2012

Tony Stewart's engulfed by microphones - NASCAR photo

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The current NASCAR off-season has been one of contentment for No. 14 Office Depot Chevrolet driver Tony Stewart, who earned his third NASCAR Sprint Cup championship at the final race of the year on the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway oval. Stewart won by a tie-breaker over Carl Edwards, due to his five victories in 10 Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff series races.

As practice opens for the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday night and for the Daytona 500 the following Sunday, Stewart appears at peace with himself. "What is odd about it is that we haven't stopped (to smell the roses); we really haven't taken a break through the winter. I have been content. We've been staying busy racing and we have had a lot of stuff going on at the shop - but it's all been stuff we've been looking forward to," he said.

Winning the championship helped that peaceful buzz Stewart is experiencing. "When you can go back to your shop at the end of the year and everyone is excited and still pumped up from the result, that makes the off-season go by that much quicker and that much easier. I think there is a lot to that."

While his Stewart-Haas Racing team has been riding high following the championship and the banquet, that doesn't mean they have been resting on their laurels, Stewart acknowledged. "It was right back to work, trying to figure out to do the same thing this year. It kind of got the whole mindset of the shop to not get lazy and think about what we accomplished last year and get working on what we can do to try to repeat this year."  

Even with the addition of Greg "Zippy" Zipadelli and Steve Addington to his roster of intelligence, "The hard thing is you have to improve through the winter and all the teams will improve. I don't think you really know until you get two or three races into the year exactly what the results are from the winter and the hard work."

Stewart is dealing with a new crew chief in Addington and is also mentoring Danica Patrick as she transitions through Nationwide and Sprint Cup competition. While he looked to improve everywhere with the car and gel with his new crew chief, Stewart understands," We have an unknown variable with the fuel injection this year as to which of these programs have figured it out better than the next.

"Honestly, the fuel injection side I don't worry about a lot. Especially since it's on the Hendrick side of the program, I really feel confident with our engine program with Hendrick," Stewart confirmed. "We just take what we have and get the most out of it every week. Having Zippy there and having Addington coming over, we have two more guys from two different organizations and we can take the best from all of that and try to integrate that into what we are doing and make our program better each week."

Stewart has wins most everywhere NASCAR races but is still looking for his first Daytona 500 victory, making it "very high" on his bucket list. "Especially these next two weeks, it is the highest thing on that list," he said. While he'd never trade those three hard-fought championships for a visit to Victory Lane after the Daytona 500, "It is the biggest race of the year; everyone wants to win that race. I won't say it's not a complete career if you don't win it but there is a lot of priority on this. Darrell Waltrip and Dale Sr [Earnhardt] both had to go a long time before they got it."

Although he's won three times at Daytona International Speedway in NASCAR's July race, Stewart hasn't won the big one. Is it that much harder, coming as the first race of the year? Not exactly, Stewart said. "You look at some of the greatest finishes of our sport - they have come from the Daytona 500 and some of the wildest, craziest finishes, fights on the back stretch, you name it - we have had it here."

Racing through the winter, from December until the DIS track opens for practice this week has been Tony Stewart's workout. HIs lifestyle is a bit different from other drivers in that he doesn't have a wife, no kids, just a dog and a pair of cats. "I looked for every race that I could run through the off-season," Stewart said. "That is what I wanted to do. It sounds like you would wear yourself out doing it but that is my workout plan. I don't go to the gym - I go to the race track and race. I'm just much happier when I can be racing."