Steward ready for things that go bump in the night at Kentucky
Kentucky’s surface is the X-Games of paved tracks – edgy and in-your-face. There is no avoiding the bumps.
KANNAPOLIS, N.C., (June 26, 2012) – Ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties aren’t the only things that go bump in the night. Kentucky Speedway in Sparta also is home to things that go bump in the night, namely, 43 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers thundering over the bumps that cover the surface of the 1.5-mile oval.
All tracks have character – subtle undulations and grooves that set it apart from its counterparts. But Kentucky’s surface is the X-Games of paved tracks – edgy and in-your-face. There is no avoiding the bumps. Navigate them wrong, and they’ll make you a part of a spark-filled highlight reel.
Saturday night’s 400-mile Sprint Cup race at Kentucky marks only the second time NASCAR’s elite series has competed at the track, for it joined the Sprint Cup schedule last year. As such, it is just one of two tracks where Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, is winless in Sprint Cup competition. The other is Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, the oldest track on the Sprint Cup schedule.
Stewart would like nothing more than to cross Kentucky off his to-do list, as he did earlier this year when he won at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway to secure his first win at a track that for 13 previous years had eluded him. Ironically, Stewart’s considers Kentucky to be a bumpier version of Las Vegas.
That outlook, combined with the confidence from his recent hot streak of three top-three finishes in the last three Sprint Cup races – including back-to-back second-place results at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn and the road course in Sonoma, Calif., that have vaulted Stewart to fifth in points – makes the three-time and reigning Sprint Cup champion more than capable of bumping his way into Kentucky’s victory lane on Saturday night.
TONY STEWART, Driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing:
You’re from Columbus, Ind. Does racing at Kentucky feel like a homecoming of sorts?
“I’m a Southern Indiana guy, so the track is not very far from where I grew up and where I currently live. It’s kind of a home track to us, and that’s kind of the feeling we have going into it. You always want to run well at your home tracks. Even though Indy has always been my home track in the past, now having Kentucky Speedway there, it’s as much home to me as Indy. We’re definitely looking forward to it. Plus, it’s an area that has deep racing roots. There’s a lot of dirt track racing roots around Kentucky.”
You have one race under your belt at Kentucky – last year’s inaugural Sprint Cup race. What makes it a challenging venue?
“I guess the biggest thing about it is for those of us who haven’t run Nationwide or Truck races there, we still only have one race at that track. So, we’re still figuring out. It’s got a lot of bumps, so that makes it very challenging. Trying to figure out exactly where to be, where to try to get around some of the bumps, how to get through them better, how to get the car to go through them better – those are challenges that kind of make it fun, because it’s not just flat and easy to get around.”
Is it like any other track you go to on the Sprint Cup circuit?
“It’s a lot like Vegas for the most part, except for the banking and the bumps.”
How do you deal with the bumps at Kentucky?
“It’s really, really bumpy, so it’s a struggle to get the car to go through the bumps really well. It’s bumpier than anywhere that we go as far as mile-and-a-halves are concerned. But that’s what’s fun about it too is that it’s got character and makes us have to work on making it go through the bumps better.”
How much bumpier is Kentucky compared to other tracks?
“It’s definitely a challenge. It’s an added element that you have every week, but it’s more exaggerated at Kentucky than anywhere else we’ve been.”
Where are the bumps?
“I don’t know. I haven’t found a spot where there weren’t any bumps. You aren’t going to go around the bumps. They’re everywhere.”
Source: Stewart-Haas Racing
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Tony Stewart calls SHR's NASCAR performance "unacceptable"
Justin Haley "turned down one or two" rides for the Indianapolis 500
Tony Stewart to drive wife Leah's NHRA Top Fuel dragster in 2024
Josh Berry "not necessarily panicked" over tough 2024 season
Taking a closer look at Corey Lajoie's wild ride at Talladega
Surging Chase Briscoe says a win "is right around the corner"
The plot twist that gave Arrow McLaren’s Ward his first win as team principal
WRC looking to add F1-style team radio to TV broadcasts
Formula E’s new Gen3 Evo car breaks cover
Adrian Newey set to leave Red Bull F1 team
The ex-F1 driver taking on NASCAR with a new team
The early benefits and challenges of NASCAR's Next Gen car
How Penske's rookie sensation opened NASCAR's new era in style
Six key themes to follow in the 2022 NASCAR Cup season
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments