TONY STEWART – Messin’ with Texas
KANNAPOLIS, N.C., – Despite the warning carried on bumper stickers slapped on the backs of countless pickup trucks and cars throughout the state of Texas, Tony Stewart enjoys messin’ with Texas. In fact, the “Don’t Mess with Texas” mantra might as well be an invitation for the driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing.
Stewart has been messing around in Texas for nearly two decades, first harassing drivers in the IZOD IndyCar Series and now drivers in the elite NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
It all began in November 1995 when Stewart was tabbed to pilot A.J. Foyt’s Indy car for a commercial shoot at Texas World Speedway in College Station. And while those laps were a long way from an actual race, the then 24-year-old Stewart parlayed his time with Foyt – the racing icon for whom he is named after – into a full-fledged drive in the IndyCar Series that brought Stewart back to Texas in 1997.
Before Stewart became synonymous with stock cars, he was the poster child for what was then known as the Indy Racing League (IRL). In his three IRL races at Texas Motor Speedway, Stewart started on the pole twice (June 1997 and June 1998) and second once (September 1998). And while he never finished an IRL race at the 1.5-mile oval – engine failures hampered him in June 1997 and September 1998, and mechanical woes sidelined him in June 1998 – Stewart still led 208 of a possible 624 laps (33.4 percent).
The Texas trophies he was unable to attain in Indy cars were found in stock cars.
In November 2006 – Stewart’s 10th trip to Texas as a Sprint Cup driver – he dominated, leading eight times for a race-high 278 laps en route to victory. Serving as a precursor to that win was Stewart’s drive seven months earlier when the four-race International Race of Champions (IROC) visited Texas. Stewart won that April race and then followed it with another victory on the road course at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. With a third-place finish in the season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Stewart secured his first IROC championship – the last in the 30-year history of IROC.
Its memories like those, along with new-age loop data tallied by NASCAR, that makes Texas a welcome venue for Stewart.
In the last 12 Sprint Cup races at Texas, Stewart has amassed the best driver rating (104.5), the best average running position (8.6), the best average green-flag speed (173.177 mph) and the most laps spent in the top-15 (3,347 laps or 83.3 percent). All of which augment his more traditional statistics – one pole, one win, four top-fives, 10 top-10s and 542 laps in 18 career Sprint Cup starts.
It’s obvious the two-time Sprint Cup champion enjoys kicking butt in the Lone Star State, and with the trophy for Sunday’s Samsung Mobile 500 being an exquisitely carved wooden cowboy boot, it’s the perfect metaphor for Stewart to put his foot on the throat of his competition and mess with Texas yet again.