Tony Stewart

Again I'm going to stray from the normal Indiana sprint car talk but bear with me.

With the Indiana sprint car season coming to a close that also signals the end of the season for many other forms of racing. Formula 1 only has a handful of races left, NASCAR has started the "Chase" and our friend JR Todd only has a few more chances to collect another Wally.

However, I want to focus on NASCAR and one driver in particular: Tony Stewart. Tonight I got home from an evening out with my lady friend and was making my rounds on social media. I saw that Stewart had been eliminated from the "Chase" along with another of my favorites, Kyle Larson. I think most of us are use to seeing negative remarks about Smoke in the comment section these days, I wrote a piece about that back in January. But for so many fans to be disrespectful and hateful to a driver and more importantly a person that has given so much to racing makes me mad.

In terms of racing I'm a youngster. Tony Stewart has been in NASCAR for my entire adult life, I missed the majority of his open wheel years, or at least I was too young to comprehend what he was really doing at the time. However, in the time I've been able able to actually watch and know what's going on I've seen Stewart do some incredible things. But lets start at the beginning because that tells a lot of the story.

Tony Stewart was not born into some well-to-do household like many of his NASCAR counterparts. Tony had to race his way through the ranks with, for the most part, the help of some good people along along the way. Stewart won karting and TQ titles before he moved up to bigger and better things.

He was the USAC Midget National Champion in 1994 and would follow that up with the coveted USAC Triple Crown in 1995, a feat accomplished by only 5 other drivers in USAC's history (Pancho Carter, Dave Darland, Jerry Coons Jr, JJ Yeley & Tracy Hines). More impressively, he did it all in the same season. This feat has only been repeated one other time when JJ Yeley did it in 2003, with the help of Stewart as a car owner.

Beyond that Stewart went on to become a winner in CART and then the Indy Racing League where he won a championship in 1997 before moving over to NASCAR. He won Rookie of the Year in his freshman year and then won his first title in 2002 for Joe Gibbs Racing, following that up with another title in 2005. He won another championship in 2011 after they changed to that gimmick "Chase" format and he did it with a team he co-owned. Kevin Harvick won another championship for him a few years back as well. During that time he also won an IROC championship. But all of that is just on pavement.

Can we really forget that Tony Stewart has won two Chili Bowl National titles (2002 & 2007), a Turkey Night Grand Prix (2000) and multiple World of Outlaws features? The list goes on and on and were not even going to try to touch the local level. Oh yeah, he did show up at the Fort Wayne Rumble a few times over the years. He has 9 feature wins there against the likes of Dave Darland or the late Tony Elliott.

Off the track, Tony Stewart stepped in when the legendary Earl Baltes was getting up there in age and bought Eldora Speedway off of him. The track conditions may not always be the best but I can tell you that the facilities there are top notch and Smoke has tried to do everything he can when it comes to promotion. There are USAC/WoO doubleheaders, the 4-Crown Nationals have now added the All Star sprint cars and oh yeah, there is a damn NASCAR race at the track now. Who would have thought that 10 years ago? That's due to Tony Stewart. Lets not forget that for a time he brought the Prelude to the Dream to Eldora  which brought in premier drivers from all ranks to run dirt late models for charity. People paid big money to go to those shows and Tony turned around and gave that money away for a good cause.

When the All Star Sprints were struggling, Tony Stewart bought them, now they routinely have better car counts than the World of Outlaws. When a young motocross rider named Eric Saunders crashed and found himself paralyzed, Smoke stepped in and got that kid in a race car. I forgot to point out Stewart has his own dirt team.

Yes, Tony Stewart Racing shut down it's non wing program but not before he helped guys like Josh Wise or JJ Yeley win USAC championships. By the way, they were in the NASCAR race today too. As far as his non-wing program went he also helped out a young guy named Bryan Clauson, he was pretty good I think, along with others such as Levi Jones, Bobby East, and Jay Drake. Championships are always good and that group has plenty of them.

On the winged side Stewart may have been critical of "The King" Steve Kinser at times but when you're flipping the bills I think you're allowed to do that. He supported Kinser in the later years of his epic career when many others were constantly saying he should hang it up along with helping Donny Schatz win his last six World of Outlaws championships if you include this year. He helped Danny "The Dude" Lasoski win one as well as an owner.

I'm not blind and I saw all the drama up in New York in the winged sprint car race a few years back but I was not there, I was not in the car and I can only gauge what happened by the facts laid before me.

On the other hand I can tell you for a fact that Tony Stewart is a wheel-man. He's one of those few talented individuals that can be put behind the wheel of any type of car and can race it and probably win in it. He gives back a ton of his fortune to charity and also has helped grow the local short track circuit whether it's funding a team, buying a track, or funding an entire series.

Tony Stewart may not be your favorite driver and that's okay. But he should get a little bit of respect and not the badmouthing I see on social media. So you're sensitive and you don't like a guy that speaks his mind? Okay, but I better not see you wearing a Thomas Meseraull t-shirt at the track. You don't like a driver that's willing to mix it up with another driver after the race in the pits? I better not ever see you cheering for Robert Ballou then.

Every driver is unique, every driver has their own personality and you may or may not like them. But don't be disrespectful. If you do not like a driver, don't buy their t-shirt or cheer for them during driver introductions. DO NOT trash them on social media or in the stands for everyone to hear. This goes back to helping grow the sport. Be proactive, not destructive.

Tony Stewart, you have my respect, you always have. You're a passionate driver that keeps his foot in the gas. There have been some rough times but your good days far outnumber the bad. You've done more for the sport as a whole from karts to NASCAR than any other driver in the history of the sport could ever hope to do. I personally want to thank you.

Nate