"STEWART 'LIGHTENS UP' BACK IN INDY-CAR"

Published in the Johnson County (Ind.) Daily Journal, May 18, 1999 ©

         Of late, Tony Stewart has been driving cars that steer like bowling bowls for a living. But, this week at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he has been back behind the wheel of a machine that he can toss around like a tennis ball.

         Of course, his tosses clock in somewhere in the 222-mile-an-hour range, something not even Pete Sampras could handle.

         "It's like night and day," reported the Columbus, Ind., driver who has interrupted his rookie season in NASCAR Winston Cup stock car racing to take another shot at the Indy 500. "I feel like I'm driving a slot car now."

         Stewart, who was the star player for the Indy Racing League in its first three years of existence, climbed back into an Indy-car for the first time since September on Sunday. After running fewer than 40 laps in his No. 22 orange-and-white Tri Star Motorsports entry, he has found himself near the top of the practice speed charts and just getting warmed up for a few more swings at his motorized tennis ball.

         "You pretty much can point these cars where they want to go," the 27-year-old driver advised, matched up against Indy after a steady diet of bowling marathons in NASCAR this spring. "I don't care what you do to a Winston Cup car, you couldn't get the grip that these cars have.

         "The easiest way to describe it is, if you take a tennis ball and a bowling ball and I roll them toward you, and I asked you to make them change directions, you could make the tennis ball move easy. A bowling ball would be a whole lot harder."

         So, with the ease of a Sampras or Martina Hingis, the former top seed on the IRL tour has reassumed his role as one of the favorites for the May 30 auto racing classic. His first time back on the track in a 1,500-pound Indy-car -- compared with the 3,400-pound boulders he has to mandhandle on the Winston Cup lanes -- has been everything Stewart hoped for. Game, set and match.

         "Yep, I didn't hit the wall," he said, with a confident laugh as he relaxed with Larry Curry, a co-owner along with Stewart and Andy Card in the Tri Star operation. "That was my main goal. I got some laps in, just kind of got re-acclimated.

         "It's wasn't too tough. It's just like putting on an old pair of shoes; you don't forget."

         But the old pair of tennis shoes could get tighter than a pair of rented bowling shoes as the first week of practice leading up to next weekend's qualifications accelerates ahead. Because of his NASCAR commitments, Stewart will have to qualify his lighter-than-Brunswick Dallara- Aurora as early as possible on Saturday, then hop a chartered plane to make a race at Charlotte, N.C., later that day.

         "It would take a very early number," he noted, referring to the blind draw for Saturday's qualifying order, "and being able to qualify right away."

         Stewart's tight timetable requires him to be able to leave Indianapolis no later than 1:30 Saturday afternoon. That could be as tough as picking up a 7-10 split or one of those close line calls at Wimbledon that ignite the more intense players.

         And Stewart definitely is intense about the Indy 500. Why else would anyone try to qualify at Indy and race at Charlotte the same day? Or, the following weekend, race at Indy and then speed back at Charlotte the same Sunday?

         "I grew up in Columbus, 45 miles south of here," began his smooth swing at the question. "Every May, you're in school as a kid, and all you want to do is get home and watch the 5-6 hour on TV and see who's running fast.

         "So, I'd be stupid if I didn't say this was the single most important race to me. If I was only going to win one, this would be the one I'd pick."

         He has led 140 laps in his three tries for the victory milk at the 500, but his best finish so far was fifth in 1997. But it may turn out that throwing those NASCAR bowling balls around the its big tracks -- where he recently finished fourth in the California 500 -- has served up a lesson the oval-faced young Hoosier can carry over onto the lighter-handling Indianapolis cars, much as running with ankle weights in preparation for a marathon makes 26 miles seem like half that.

         "You always used to see me be the rabbit and try to put as many cars a lap down as possible," he said, rolling a gutter-ball glance over at Curry, who was his chief mechanic on the IRL circuit before becoming a car owner in his new Indy-only team this May. "And, if that situation presents itself again, we may do that again, but we're going to do whatever it takes to get to the end of the race.

         "That's the main thing I've learned from running all those long Winston Cup races, so I think I'm going to know a little better what we're gonna need for race day here."

         Even then, a win this May 30 could be a most problematic outcome for young Stewart. The victory rituals could squeeze his logistical schedule even tighter, needing to clear the net in time to answer the starting gun at Charlotte.

         "I'm gonna have to learn how to drink milk quickly," he speculated, serving up another large and lazy laugh. "I'll have to hold up one finger quickly and drive the victory lap quickly, too.

         "We'll just see; if we have a little extra time, we'll take more time. Either way, we'll have all of Monday and Tuesday to enjoy it."

         At that point, Curry quickly assured his driver that the dreamed-of victory celebration would go on whether he catches his flight to Charlotte or not Sunday. "If we win the race, I'm not leaving Victory Lane," Curry advised, with a grin as wide as a bowling lane. "I'm gonna spend the night there.

         "I'll drink the rest of his milk and hang out onto the wreath for him."

----------

 Copyright 1999 by Jerry Miller ©

 Color photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway

 Return to Writings page