Tony Stewart - Grounded In Dirt

Intense, driven and motivated are words used to describe the driving abilities Tony Stewart has demonstrated in his NASCAR career.

But Stewart will be the first to reveal that those attributes were cultivated long before he became a Nextel Cup champion. Although it might seem like an unlikely connection to the casual follower of the sport, he says that much of his racing savvy came from his days racing on dirt.

"When I look back at my complete open wheel career, I would estimate that up to 65 percent of the races were done on the dirt," he says.

And what a dirt driver he was, winning in various types of open wheel machines. Today, Stewart's love of dirt hasn't wavered one bit and you probably wouldn't be surprised to learn that he'd like to have a couple of dirt races scattered in the Cup schedule.

Even today, when his schedule allows, he will jump into a Dirt Late Model, Sprint Car, or a Dirt Modified just to have a little fun. "I still love driving those cars when I can," he says.

Stewart clearly remembers those early Kart races on dirt when he started competing at only 8 years old. "When I started racing, getting a bigger trophy than the other kids was all I cared about," he recalls.

His first title came on the dirt track at his hometown fairground. Two more championships came in the following years, this time at the national level.

But he was looking for more horsepower and then moved to three-quarter Midgets on dirt. "My dad was running them at the time and I watched him race where he ran up front much of the time," says Stewart. "I raced those cars for a couple years before moving to USAC in 1991."

He proved his versatility in that top circuit, which had both pavement and dirt races in each of its classes. Through 1998, which was when he quit competing fulltime with USAC, he had 46 Silver Crown, 64 Sprint Car, 89 Midget, and 37 Western Series Midget wins.

In all, there were four USAC division titles, and that's an interesting story as three of them occurred in the same season, 1995. Tony still considers that amazing effort to be his biggest accomplishment in racing.

"The odds of doing it were almost impossible, but things just worked out for me that season," he recalls. "Fortunately the schedules were such that I only missed two Midget races, but I was still able to win that division too."

He can also recall a great night at the USAC Four Crown Nationals when he won both the Midget and Sprint Car races and finished Second in the Silver Crown race. But later, when he was also running Indy and Busch Grand National cars, there were some problems.

"I guess I forget how to drive a Sprint Car and demolished it on the front stretch," Stewart says. "I flipped it and landed right in front of the crowd. I caused a number of cars to get torn up. Needless to say, that is one race that I try not to remember.

"But I never really had any problem switching back and forth between dirt and pavement in those open wheel cars. It's just like driving a car for me-I just do it and don't think about it at all."

He remembers the first time that he saw the towering dirt banks of Eldora Speedway. "It was '92 or so, and when I walked in, I was in awe," Stewart says. "I thought that I might have bitten off more than I could chew, it was so fast! Right then, I felt that there was no other track in the country that could even come close to this place."

And about his plea to run some Cup races on dirt?

"It's been done for many years by ARCA using NASCAR-type cars on mile dirt tracks at places like DuQuoin (Illinois) and Indianapolis," he says. "I personally ran a couple ARCA dirt races and loved them."

So what if things hadn't worked out in NASCAR, would he have considered going back to short-track dirt racing?

"Yes, I would quickly have returned to the Midgets and Sprint Cars," Stewart says. "And also I think I would have driven the Dirt Late Models. In recent years, I have driven them when I had time, and I really like them a lot too."

With Stewart's background on dirt, there's a question he may be more suited than anyone to answer. Why haven't the drivers of the speedy Dirt Late Models hit the NASCAR scene? "I'm not sure why that's the case because there are some excellent drivers in those cars," he says. "Maybe it comes down to the fact that they don't get as much exposure. But I think that you are going to see guys like Tim McCready and Josh Richards have some success."