The NASCAR world has been all abuzz with the news that Tony Stewart is expanding his future in NASCAR to take on the ownership role. Handing away a reported $35 million in equity, jailed car owner Gene Haas has given up 50% ownership in his team, enabling Tony Stewart to bring his own name and sponsors to the struggling organization. Indeed, today is the day he introduces his car number and his sponsors to the media and to the fans.
When Tony first entered the NASCAR scene as a driver, he carried a tremendous amount of stress and anger into his relationships with media and with the people he has had to deal with daily. He has had shoving matches with reporters, he frequently has on-track altercations with drivers, has been sanctioned and fined by his own sponsor, and lately has been using his Sirius program, Tony Stewart Live, to lambaste other drivers, reporters, and even NASCAR.
The media and fans have been speculating about Tony and his ownership skills. Many fans do not realize that Tony has already been a car owner, in the USAC world. In fact, he owns the midget cars driven by Tracy Hines and Levi Jones.
Tony attended a USAC race at O’Reilly Raceway Park last night. And as reported by The Herald Bulletin Tony had another display of temper.
Stewart, the two-time Sprint Cup champion, owns the midget cars of Tracy Hines and Levi Jones. Hines entered Thursday’s race as the points leader and was running in the top four when he brushed the outside wall on a restart on the eighth circuit
Hines’ crew attempted to change a right rear flat tire and get Hines back into the race before another restart. As the crew pushed the car to the front of the straightaway, a USAC official indicated they were too late.
That brought Stewart down pit lane to voice his displeasure with the decision. Stewart’s actions first knocked the headset from the official’s head, and he then shoved the official.
It was unknown if USAC officials would issue any penalties against Stewart.
Once again, Tony will be facing potential sanctions by racing officials, and he must be wondering if there will be a lawsuit springing up from the person who was shoved. Tony is quite familiar with this type of lawsuit, having been the subject of several. While many of those lawsuits were considered frivolous, a few were based in fact.
Tony as a NASCAR owner/driver will be under even more stress. NASCAR media will be hoping to see Tony in those pressure-cooker situations, and will be poised with pen in hand ready to write about the latest antics of Mr. Stewart. He is always good for a story, whether good or bad!
It is no secret to many of the readers of this blog, that I am formerly a fan of Elliott Sadler, and have moved my allegiance to David Gilliland. The main reason I have made this move, is that David exhibits the off-track behavior that always seemed missing from the Southern Gentleman driver of the #19. ( You can check out blogger One Lugnut Short for more info on Sadler's shenanigans. But be prepared with a pot of coffee and snacks, as there is a lot to read within the history of that blog!) While Gilliland has had some struggles from bad equipment, he is persevering, in his second full year, with a rookie crew chief, an essentially brand new team, and is beating all expectations.
Yes, I follow a driver that does not have the experience of many of the so-called veterans of the series. I find it fun to root for the underdog, and I take pleasure over small increases in progress. (I am constantly amazed at fans of drivers who consistently run in the top ten, complaining that their driver has a bad car, bad team, bad cc, etc etc etc! The pain of not having a driver finish in the top five...oh my, how horrible!)
Thus, it was interesting to be a spectator, albeit via TV and online, of the wreck caused today at the Best Buy sponsored race at Dover. I keep busy during races by running an online race chat, watching TV, and running Pit Command and Race View on two computers. I listen to Sirius radio during the race, in one ear, and the scanner for my driver in the other ear. I watched the 3-D pictures of Race View as the 19 and the 38 came together, spawning a huge wreck.
That 'Big One Wreck' had me holding my breath, waiting to see the replay, and I was relieved to see that my driver, while involved, was not at fault in the accident. Multiple replays later, the talking heads in the booth agreed that the 19 carried the greater fault in the altercation. My relief that Sadler and the other drivers involved in the horrible melee were all physically ok was punctuated by Tony Stewart's sly comments about 'If I'm within half a lap of (Sadler), I expect that to happen."
I then discovered there were a few Members of the Media that seem to carry a bit of a grudge. Take for instance, Bob Margolis, of Yahoo.com, during their weekly RaceFlash.
Here is the transcript, a race-time conversation with Margolis, Jay Hart, and Jerry Bonkowsi (the latter who I have respected for years) :
Bob Margolis: David Gilliland made a lot of enemies today. He'll not be invited to any driver parties (as if he was before) in the future.
Jerry Bonkowski: I disagree with you, Bob. TV replay looks like Sadler came down on Gilliland and Gilliland had nowhere to go.
Jay Hart: I agree with Jerry. Sadler caused it, not Gilliland.
Bob Margolis: You're both wrong.
Jay Hart: What was Gilliland supposed to do, Bob? Sadler moved down right in front of him. He had nowhere to go.
Jerry Bonkowski: Sadler says he got loose and came down on Gilliland - there ya go, Bob.
Bob Margolis: I still blame Gilliland. He's over his head.
I find it amazing that the Margolis argument stems from total illogic. You can almost hear the childish "No I don't wanna believe that!" However, if you go back into many of Bob's articles, you will find many negative comments about Gilliland. I have to wonder if Bob has any deeper connection to other drivers who may have an issue with Gilliland, because that kind of illogic is not befitting of a journalist.
Once I reduced my blood pressure over Bob's commentary, I made the mistake of watching Victory Lane on Speed TV. Early into the broadcast, Jimmy Spencer, who never forgets, seems to be forgetting that he should be a bit impartial. He immediately and with great anger proclaimed the wreck to be Gilliland's fault, and that he 'should have his butt parked for the rest of the race.' He participated in conversation proclaiming that the other Big Name drivers could not stop in time (some of them having ten or twenty car lengths to make the stop), yet says that Gilliland could have braked fast enough to keep from hitting a car coming down on him. This concept was made even more ironic when the earlier broadcast of the Race Day show said that 'things happen fast' at this track!
Spencer has carried an issue with Gilliland for quite a while. He has managed to butcher the pronunciation of David's last name for a year and a half, yet was able to pronounce it perfectly this evening.
Many folks proclaim that Jimmy is one of the last of the old school drivers. Thank heavens that I have listened to Buddy Baker on Sirius, or I would be convinced that Jimmy was a (poor) example of the 'back in the day' drivers. (Egad, it makes me like Kurt Busch even more, for his 'decrepit has-been' comments a few years ago!)
I can forgive Jimmy just a bit, since he is not a journalist. He plays the buffoon on the SpeedTV shows, and therefor cannot be given much credit for being impartial. However, I will be boycotting whatever show he is on from now on. I find that I get far better race information from the Sirius broadcasts. Margolis, however, should be ashamed of his bias. I think that Hart and Bonkowski, along with Ricky Craven, are awesome, but Margolis should think twice before tapping on the keyboards.
Both of them need to sit down and read that even fans of Elliott Sadler proclaim that Sadler caused this wreck. And they need to be prepared for the backlash, because NASCAR fans are not stupid. We know when Mostly Moronic Members of the Media are trying at Manipulating our Minds!
The NASCAR world has been all abuzz with the news that Tony Stewart is expanding his future in NASCAR to take on the ownership role. Handing away a reported $35 million in equity, jailed car owner Gene Haas has given up 50% ownership in his team, enabling Tony Stewart to bring his own name and sponsors to the struggling organization. Indeed, today is the day he introduces his car number and his sponsors to the media and to the fans.
