Stewart's double: Gibbs says Winston Cup comes first
By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive
May 8, 2001
12:20 PM EDT (1620 GMT)
CONCORD, N.C. -- Come May 27, Tony Stewart will be running around in circles -- literally.
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Joe Gibbs (left) and Tony Stewart have won 10 Winston Cup races together.
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But fear not NASCAR fans. According to Joe Gibbs, his heart -- and his loyalties -- ride with the Winston Cup Series.
Despite vowing never to attempt the feat again, Stewart will run both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same day, marking the second time in the past three years he'll attempt to run 1,100 miles in nine hours.
How does Gibbs, Stewart's car owner, feel about all this? How did he react to his driver, in the midst of a championship hunt, jumping over to Chip Ganassi's stable to run an Indy Racing League machine in a different time zone just hours before the longest race on the Winston Cup circuit?
"To understand my initial reaction you've got to back in the history on this," Gibbs said. "When I first sat down with Tony about a contract and we were trying to work out something the very first year, he told me, 'Joe, Winston Cup is where I want to be, I want to win that championship, but I have a burning desire that I'd love to, if there's any opportunity in the future, to run Indy and win it.'"
"And I made a commitment to him, hey, we'll do that for you if it made any sense in any way. And of course I, having said that, our number one driving force for me and Tony is Home Depot. We did the first one and Home Depot was all for it. I think it was good for them.
"But you always worry about something like this because there's so many variables and so many things could happen. So it is a concern, but I think we weighed everything out based on the sponsor and Tony and came to the conclusion that it's something we should support and certainly do."
Okay, coach, but what about The Home Depot, the sponsor who has millions of dollars invested in Stewart? What do they have to say about their driver hopping into another series, all the while wearing the colors of a direct competitor, Target?
"Home Depot is one of the greatest partners," Gibbs said. "We all understand, what's been made perfectly clear, Tony has said this, I've said this and Home Depot said it. The number one priority here is the Winston Cup car.
"So we've taken every arrangement, every conflict whether it's weather or anything else, Tony's going Winston Cup racing. So that's exactly where they came from. So after that, they loved the idea, loved the challenge and wanted to support Tony and they're going to do it on both cars."
Okay, so Coach Gibbs and Home Depot are behind Stewart all the way. But what if, God forbid, Stewart were injured in the 500? What then? What if the race is delayed by rain? What if he wins?
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Stewart ran at Indy in 1999 and finished ninth in a car sponsored by Home Depot.
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"I think on the injury thing, we see guys injured in Cup, too," Gibbs said. "So you kind of got to think that anytime you race a car, that, we hate to say it and Tony and I would be the first to say it, and certainly with the things we've experienced in the sport here. But that's what we do. We race cars, and part of that is that you could get hurt.
"On the time constraint deal, I think if you look at the time frame, it works. Believe me, we've gone over everything 100 times, so we've got it almost down to a science. We've got helicopters going both ways and we have one of the fastest private planes available, so we feel confident about the time issue. We've also got the medical team with him, so he should be in really good shape when he gets here."
Gibbs was adamant that no matter the situation, whether it be weather, time or otherwise, that Winston Cup comes first. Even if Stewart was winning the Indy 500 with 20 laps to go, he would park it if they were past deadline to make the 600.
"Correct. Every consideration you could think of, we've gone through it. The bottom line is that priority is the Winston Cup race and we're not going to jeopardize that in any way," Gibbs said. "We've discussed every single possibility you can think of.
"The only thing I would say there is we truly have discussed everything. We learned a lot the first time. I think we can do it better. In some cases, we can get him here in better shape than what we did before.
"We have a medical team and have discussed every issue that could possibly come up, and have made arrangements accordingly. We've got drop-dead times and different parts of this whole deal to be certain we're okay for this Winston Cup race."
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Stewart won at Richmond for his first win of 2001.
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Gibbs is a good man. In short, he's letting an employee pursue a dream. Not too many drivers, or professional athletes in general, would have the blessing of their owner to attempt such a feat.
For example, could you imagine if the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League made it to the Grey Cup game, and summoned Drew Bledsoe to quarterback them to the title the same day he's slated to lead the New England Patriots into the AFC Championship game against the Tennessee Titans?
In a roundabout way, that's exactly what will happen on May 27. Still, Gibbs is behind Stewart 100 percent.
"My thoughts were more in the concern category," Gibbs said. "Certainly that's first for us. Like I said, I think we go into this with Winston Cup first for all of us, me, Tony and Home Depot. That's why we talked over every scenario and we don't see anything there that could upset the Cup race.
"Yes, he is running for a title, we feel like, and we don't want to jeopardize that. We took all that into consideration when we decided to do this. We're ready."
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