Credit: Autostock

Conversation: Tony Stewart

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Tony Stewart tells it like it is, albeit in a calculated manner. He's been burned before, been chastised by a racing media corps that pleads for outspoken drivers, then crucifies those that speak out.

He adores racing, but he's jaded. He knows NASCAR is the most competitive racing in the world, but hates the Nextel Cup circus. He's caught in the middle between competition and commercialization.

One week ago, following a victory at Watkins Glen International, Stewart dialed up NASCAR.COM's Marty Smith for a conversation about the recent shenanigans in Victory Lane, his adoration for Sprint Car racing and what's become of his Watkins Glen driver's suit.

Q: Was Watkins Glen the worst you've ever felt in a car? I know you had Boris Said standing by, but did you ever seriously contemplate getting out?

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Tony Stewart: There were parts where I thought I was going to have to get out, but the weird part about it was it kind of fluctuated. I never really felt -- it's not like the pain came and stayed constant the whole rest of the day.

It was a situation where you'd have severe pain for a while, then it'd subside a bit, ease up a while then come back. It seemed like the cautions were the worst part.

I don't know if that's because I was able to think about other things other than what was going on on the racetrack or what, but it was a period where it seemed like the yellow flag laps were just miserable.

Boris was just a precautionary measure. I asked Zippy to look for somebody just in case. At that time I didn't have any plans of getting out of the car, just wanted to have somebody lined up if I felt like I had to get out.

Q: So was it the worst you've ever felt in a car?

Stewart: I don't know if it's the worst, definitely the most uncomfortable. I've been in more in a racecar before, but the severity of the pain for the duration of time was just weird. I've had injuries and been sore in racecars, but never really had a common pain like that. The severity of it was very distracting.

Tony Stewart led 46 laps at Watkins Glen, including the final 15.

Q: Well, there's a rumor going around that you might want to throw away that fire suit.

Stewart: Yeah, I've heard those rumors.

Q: It seems to me that this Victory Lane fiasco is out of control. I've not heard your opinion on it yet. Jimmie got fines, Jeff didn't go. You were gone. Is Victory Lane out of control?

Stewart: First of all, the reason I wasn't in there -- I did come back to Victory Lane. It wasn't of the politics of it. I was in severe pain. I had some issues I needed to take care of before I stayed there in Victory Lane.

We went back and took care of our obligations there. But it's NASCAR's world. It's not our world. It's not our decision. We don't control any of it. We're just small pieces in the puzzle and NASCAR and the France family is very quick to let you know that we're dispensable.

We can be replaced very, very easily. On topics like this anymore, I've quit fighting the fight. It's not worth fighting anymore. Whether I agree or disagree with it doesn't matter anymore.

I'll just leave my opinion on the shelf and just go do job each week with the race and enjoy the weekend with the team and let NASCAR do what they're going to do, because whether we agree or disagree with it, they're going to do whatever they want.

Q: If you could, give me a percentage breakdown between driving the car and everything else, be it sponsorship obligations, media, whatever. I feel like it's 70/30, meaning you're driving the car only 30 percent of the time.

Stewart: I'd say more like between 10 and 20 percent. There's a lot more to it than what everybody sees. Driving the car is a small percentage of the equation anymore compared to everything that we're asked to do as Nextel Cup drivers.

Q: I'm sure you're elated Danny Lasoski won the Knoxville Nationals.

Stewart: Yeah, man. We had an awesome weekend, got to thinking about it on the ride home. In a 24-hour period we had Dave Steele win in our USAC Sprint Car in Salem, Ind., had The Dude win the Knoxville Nationals, then myself to win the race at Watkins Glen, so it was a pretty good weekend for us.

Tony Stewart

Q: That seems going back to your roots. Big sprint cars. Do you just really enjoy being able to get away from the Nextel Cup circus and attending an event like that, and seeing him succeed?

Stewart: Yeah, and just from the standpoint that it's just simpler. The competition still just as tough as what we do in NASCAR, but you don't see hospitality tents.

The people that are there at a sprint car race are there for one reason and one reason only -- to watch the sprint car race. When you go to a Nextel Cup event, some people are there for business meetings, some are there just to hang out in hospitality tents and don't even know what they're going to be watching that weekend.

That's one thing about short track racing, the people that go to short track races know exactly why they're there. It's just a pure form of racing. There's nothing complicated about it, just reminds you of simpler times in auto racing.

Q: Fans always want to know, given equal equipment who the best driver is. People say Tony Stewart. People say Jeff Gordon. A lot of people say Robby Gordon. What's your opinion on that?

Stewart: I don't know. I'd like to see it, though. The hard thing about it is it would be hard to prove it, because different guys have different driving styles. For example, myself and Bobby Labonte. We drive for the same team, but our driving styles are so different that our setups are different from each other because of that.

He likes his car to be tighter than I do, and obviously I like my car to be freer than his. So we've both had the opportunities to drive each other's cars, but I've noticed that our driving styles are different.

It'd be hard to figure out who's the best, but I think you've got to look at it, the way I've always looked at it, you've got to look at history books. You look at Robby Gordon. He's successful in open wheel cars and trucks, off roadsters, and then he's had success in the Cup Series.

Then you look at Jeff Gordon he's won Silver Crown championships, I think he won a midget championship also. He's won sprint car races with wings and without wings, then won in the Busch Series and won in the Cup Series. So I think guys that have proven to be able to drive different types of cars, those are the guys probably are the best.

So I'd say the three you mentioned, in my opinion, lead that category. I don't think there's anything you can take away from Jeff Gordon. He's always been a winner. Robby Gordon I've always felt like has more driving talent than most of the guys I've ever seen in the 20 years I've been racing.

But I don't think you can just stop with three guys. There's many, many guys you could take and put in different types of racecars and they could figure it out pretty quickly. It'd be hard to narrow it down to just one or two guys.

Q: Is there one competition-related rule that you feel most needs alteration?

Stewart: Everybody's always asked, if I could change one thing, what would I do? I think I'd eliminate three-day weekends. I think we can get it all done in two days, easily. I think it saves the race fans money where they could enjoy their experience more and not have to take off as many days of work.

It'd give us, as drivers, and crew members, a little more time to enjoy others things in life other than being at a racetrack for half of our week. I know, especially with our team, most of the time I get more time off than our guys do.

I just don't think it's fair that teams should have to go racing on a Sunday, then have to be right back at the shop on Monday, work all the way through Thursday night and be ready to go Friday morning to start our race weekend.

That's the first thing. Eliminate testing. I think that'd help a lot, too. It'd make things a little more even for everybody, help the smaller budget teams from having that extra expense, and even out competition if everybody can't go testing.

Q: Kind of along those same lines, it seems like going to Daytona next February, then straight out to California, then the off week, then back to Vegas.

Stewart: Yeah, but NASCAR doesn't have to work on racecars anymore, so it's easy for them to make a schedule like that.