TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/OLD SPICE IMPALA SS met with media and
discussed racing at Texas Motor Speedway, Danica Patrick, his views of
the Talladega race and crash as an owner and driver, and more.
KERRY THARP: We'll pick up on our Chase driver press conferences here
this afternoon, conclusion of the first Sprint Cup Series practice.
Pleased to be joined in the media center by Tony Stewart. He drives the
No. 14 Office Depot Old Spice Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing.
Tony is currently fifth in points, has four wins on the season, won once
here before at Texas Motor Speedway. As we hit the stretch run of this
Chase, Tony, talk about your outlook for racing here this weekend at
Texas.
TONY STEWART: Well, I'm excited about it. It's one of my favorite
tracks. It's a stop that I like on the schedule. All three of the last
three here are tracks that I look forward to. That's a real big
positive. I'm excited about this weekend.
We kind of got off to a slow start this morning in race trim. I think we
started getting a direction of what it's going to want for tomorrow. We
were I think 11th or 12th or something in qualifying, qualifying speed
practice. Pretty excited about that, too.
KERRY THARP: We'll take questions for Tony.
Q. Tony, I know you and Ryan through your association this year
with the U.S. Army have really become close to a lot of military people,
soldiers. I know he took it hard this morning. How has it affected you?
Did you know anyone, because of your association with your team, that
was directly involved with what happened?
TONY STEWART: No, I didn't know anybody, unfortunately. The bad part
is, I mean, we focus more on the negatives that happen in society than we
do the positives.
But, you know, obviously it was something that nobody would have dreamed
would have happened, but it did. You know, you're thinking about all the
families and people that are involved and wish them the best.
Q. Tony, regarding practice earlier, your times looked pretty good
on the charts there. Was the wind a factor? It looks like the weather
is going to be pretty stable through the course of the weekend. Looks
like great conditions for racing. Was the wind a factor?
TONY STEWART: No. I mean, it's been pretty constant, stable. It's not
been gusty. That's what normally will bother cars more than anything.
If it's at least constant and solid through the whole session, you know
to look for it. It's not something that you're going to get picked up by
a gust. So with no gusts, it really wasn't a big issue.
Q. Tony, obviously there's been some talk about Danica joining the
NASCAR series. Just kind of what type of impact might she have of coming
over here?
TONY STEWART: The same ones I mentioned two months ago when somebody
asked me that. Go back and look at the notes.
That could be why he's back in the corner of the room, right?
Q. Tony, Ryan was in earlier. He told us he had been working with
NASCAR or talking to NASCAR about what happened last Sunday. As his car
owner and teammate, have you had any input into why are we getting up in
the air type of discussions the last two or three days?
TONY STEWART: No. Trust me, he's the engineer. He's the smarter one of
the two of us. You know, I know he spent some time over there with them
talking to them. I'm not smart enough to know how to fix it.
NASCAR has a great staff. If there was an easy solution, they would have
figured it out by now. The good thing is that you have drivers that are
willing to go over, like Ryan did this week, and spend time with the
sanctioning body and try to help at least explain the situation from his
firsthand experience.
You know, that's the only way to make things better, is just stay in
communication with NASCAR over it.
Q. Just talking about Ryan's wreck, from the perspective of a team
owner, does it affect you more than, say, when a teammate has a situation
like that happen? Is there an extra maybe concern on your part, knowing
he's there because it's your team?
TONY STEWART: Well, if he wasn't driving for me, he'd be driving for
somebody else. At the end of the day, it's about him being a person.
The harder part is that he's a good friend of mine on top of that. He
was before we were teammates. We will be if for some reason we're not
teammates in the future.
You know, he's a person. Like I said, he's a friend.
Anytime something like that happens, doesn't matter whether they're a
friend of yours or not, when you got a fellow competitor out there,
that's the first thing you're worried about, their safety.
Q. Tony, obviously you know television picked up your comments
Sunday about trying to stay awake. From where you were sitting during
that race, was that a boring race or was it an exciting race?
TONY STEWART: It's not the perfect race, I wouldn't say. I mean, you
know, the thing is, the hard part is, we got you guys saying they're
boring, so when you guys say that, all you do is keep reinforcing to
everybody that it's boring. You know, it's like Tony Glover told me this
morning, they won a race I don't know how many years ago, there were only
three cars on the lead lap.
The races are exciting. It's like everybody wants the perfect race every
time. You can't do that. I mean, the drivers think about how they can
be smart all day. You know, it's a situation where the race is so long
that you can fight your guts out to try to get to the front in the first
hundred miles, but what have you accomplished?
You haven't accomplished anything, absolutely nothing. There's nothing
you've accomplished till those last 10 or 15 laps. That's when you got
to start working your way to the front if you're not already up there.
You got a race that's 188 laps long, the only thing that matters is the
last 10 or 15. Anything that happens leading up to that point, the
teams, the drivers are smart, they've figured out it doesn't matter where
you're at. As long as you're on that lead lap with 10 or 15 to go, in
the lead draft, that's all that matters.
The hardest thing is we got this room in particular that keeps telling
people that it's a boring race. So we leave, and then we listen to the
fans complain because it's something that they read in the magazine or
read in a paper, you know, that everybody keeps trying to reinforce to
them that it's a boring race.
It wasn't a boring race. There's cars that are all nose-to-tail. But I
don't know what else everybody wants. I mean, it's a strategic race.
That's all there is to it. It's not a situation where you can do
anything on your own. It never has been.
You know, I don't know what everybody's really wants out of the
situation. I mean, everybody wants to decide whether it's a boring race
or not a boring race. Unless you got a different opinion about it, you
guys make your living off this sport, I make my living off this sport,
and we're all trying to make the best out of it.
Q. Tony, last week Johnson rode around in the back all day, ends
up finishing sixth, while the guys that still had a chance to win it all
did not finish so well, even though they ran well. Does that type of day
break another competitor's will in the big picture, just tear their heart
out?
TONY STEWART: I don't think so. I mean, the thing that you always know
going into a race at Talladega is that it's a wild card race. I mean,
you guys have all wrote about it, all spoke about it. That's what
happens when you go. You don't know what's gonna happen. You know, 98%
or 99% of the day is out of your control. It's all scenarios and
situations that are going on around you, not necessarily what you do with
your car.
You know, like I said, I mean, you sit there and you ride around for 173
to 178 laps, and then you race the last 10 or 15. You hope when the
problem happens, you know, the big wreck happens, you hope that you can
get through it. If you get through it, a lot of times you've kept
yourself in a situation where you can get that top five.
So it doesn't really do anything because of what somebody else does; you
feel so bad because you don't have any more control over your own
destiny.
Q. Tony, from a car owner perspective, team owner perspective,
even perhaps a driver perspective, with the economy the way it's been,
it's eventually going to rebound, the money is going to come back, is
there something that NASCAR maybe should consider in shortening some of
these races, aside from maybe the Daytona 500, a couple of the premiere
races, to save the teams some money, shorten the fans' attention span to
bring up the ratings and make it more interesting?
TONY STEWART: I don't know what the solution is. I mean, obviously I'm
a driver more than anything. I don't see what the fans are doing during
the race. I mean, I heard there was a point in the race where a lot of
the fans went walking around the souvenir area and stuff in the middle of
the race because they know we're all logging laps, logging miles at that
point.
You know, my opinion probably wouldn't be a popular opinion, and some
would agree from the logistical side, but some on the practical side,
emotional side wouldn't agree, thus it puts me in a bad spot. So it
really doesn't matter what my opinion is.
Q. I know your Nationwide racing is pretty limited. I was
wondering if you could share your thoughts on the new car, what impact
you think it will have on that series.
TONY STEWART: I have no idea, honestly. You know, my plan next year is
to run the race at Daytona, and that's all the Nationwide stuff I'm going
to run next year. I really haven't thought about it. I haven't really
paid attention to it too much, you know, because I'm only going to run
that one race.
Q. Speaking of Nationwide, you are involved in one team somewhat
with Morgan Shepherd. He hasn't been here the last few years to this
track. Why are you involved in his program? What is it about him that
inspires you?
TONY STEWART: What inspires us is that he's so dedicated to what he's
doing. He spends every dime he has to come and support NASCAR and
support the Nationwide Series. A lot of times, he's his own crew chief.
His own family is part of his crew. He's learned how to do a lot with
very, very little. You know, it was a situation where Kevin and myself
saw the effort he was making, wanted to try to help. It grew larger than
what I anticipated doing actually.
You know, it's hard not to fall in love with Morgan, what he's doing.
He's one of the most positive people I've ever been around. I mean, it
doesn't matter how bad your day is, when Morgan comes around, is talking
to you, you kind of forget about how bad your day is and you realize
that, you know, you're helping somebody that truly deserves the help.
You know, I'd love to see a good sponsor come along that can help him and
help support him, help him get the people that he needs. I mean, he's
got the talent; he's got the desire, drive, the will to do it. He just
needs the support right now. If Kevin and I helping him out this year
can help generate some excitement, get some people to come onboard and
help out, it would be awesome.
-credit: gm racing
