Zipadelli: Heat of moment often burns visible Stewart

JOLIET, Ill. -- Perhaps no one knows or understands the enigma that is Tony Stewart more than Greg Zipadelli, the crew chief on his No. 20 Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing.

"His greatest asset is his biggest liability, and that's his emotions and his passion. But that's what makes him a fierce competitor and a guy who is going to give everything he has inside of him to go out and run like he does on Sunday," Zipadelli said even before Stewart earned his first victory of the 2007 Nextel Cup season by capturing Sunday's USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. (watch video)

Hamlin, on Stewart

"Yeah, we talked. I told him that there was no way I was going to be convinced that I was wrong in that whole deal last week. He just vented his frustration, saying that it was many weeks coming, that he felt like I did things that agitated him. So I wanted to know what they were, and he told me -- and I tried to defend myself in those aspects as well. For the most part, I think we're going to be stronger now than what we were -- because we know how to race each other from now on."

The driver's emotions and passion also are, as even Zipadelli would admit, what make it difficult for Stewart to contain himself oftentimes in the heat of a moment at a racetrack -- such as after he and Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin got tangled up and ruined both of their chances in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway on July 7. Hamlin was running first and Stewart second at the time of the incident, which had gotten lots of publicity for all the wrong reasons, according to Zipadelli.

"I think what the public sees is the very emotional passion inside of him -- because every time something doesn't go right, somebody is standing there with a microphone or a tape recorder five minutes after he gets out of a racecar or an incident happens," Zipadelli said of Stewart. "I think what they don't see is if it's a half an hour later and he sits there and thinks about things and gets to talking about things, he's completely different and much more reasonable.

After the Daytona incident, Stewart blamed Hamlin for the wreck and accused his Gibbs teammate of trying to wreck him the day before during a Pepsi 400 practice as well. Then he openly wondered if Hamlin even knew the definition of "teammate."

Hamlin fired back Friday at Chicagoland (read more), when he contested that the Daytona wreck was his fault and insisted that Stewart owed him an apology and an explanation for "throwing him so far under the bus." The two finally met and talked Saturday afternoon, with the meeting lasting long enough that both drivers missed the first 20 minutes of their final USG Sheetrock 400 practice session.

Team owner Joe Gibbs flew in to Chicago on his way to Colorado, where he was planning to begin a vacation, just to preside over the meeting between his feuding drivers. Team president J.D. Gibbs, Joe's son, said Sunday that he couldn't attend the meeting himself but that he heard from his father and all parties involved that it went well.

"It was just behind closed doors, just like a family type atmosphere. We said, 'Let's address it, let's do it the right way, and let's move on.' I think it was fine," the younger Gibbs said. "[Joe] came out here, he said, so he could enjoy the rest of his vacation."

Hamlin said after Sunday's race that he witnessed a cameo appearance of Coach Gibbs of NFL fame, rather than the usually more mild-mannered alter-ego that serves as the owner of Joe Gibbs Racing.

"I've never really seen Coach fired up quite the way he was this week. For him to come on Saturday the way he did, I knew it was serious. And if we had to miss practice, I knew it was very serious," Hamlin said.

"He told us this is all about a team. He goes through this same thing with [NFL]players who don't like each other. He said, 'Regardless of whether you like each other or not -- you can hate each other outside the racetrack -- but when we're here, we've got to be teammates.' I like Tony as a person. But we have a working relationship, and that's what we're going to continue to build on."

Lap-by-Lap

Tony Stewart got by Matt Kenseth for good on Lap 233 and went on to win the USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland.

• Lap-by-Lap, click here
• Race Video, click here

Zipadelli added: "We've put it behind us now. It was a little deal that got blown out of proportion. And when you really stop and think about it and you look back at it, the incident was a racing deal. It was how it was handled after. I think everybody's talked, everybody has hung out, everybody understands where the frustration was. And I think we're all going to work harder to be better teammates, and to be a better team."

Hamlin agreed, chuckling when he was asked if he thought Stewart would come through on Hamlin's earlier challenge to apologize publicly for criticizing him.

"I don't think Tony is going to make any kind of public apology. That's not him," the grinning Hamlin said.

"I think we chose to do it in a different way. Yeah, we talked. I told him that there was no way I was going to be convinced that I was wrong in that whole deal last week. He just vented his frustration, saying that it was many weeks coming, that he felt like I did things that agitated him. So I wanted to know what they were, and he told me -- and I tried to defend myself in those aspects as well. For the most part, I think we're going to be stronger now than what we were -- because we know how to race each other from now on."

Stewart insisted that the media made his spat with Hamlin a bigger deal than it really was, although Hamlin was visibly upset about it Friday and openly chose to vent his feelings to the press.

"It was a bigger drama with the media than it was with the teams, in all reality," Stewart said. "The good thing about Joe is Joe knows how to organize people and keep people motivated and keep them working together."

Although everyone involved declared Saturday's meeting a success, no one should be fooled into thinking that it suddenly will make Stewart a totally changed man. In fact, Zipadelli said that he has no intention of attempting to tame the passion that both fuels Stewart's competitive nature on the track and sometimes haunts him off it when he verbally blasts someone in the spur of the moment.

"I don't think you want to. We've helped him, or tried to in the past," Zipadelli said. "What we've tried to do is just tell him you can say anything you want; it's just all a matter of how you say it. He's gotten a lot better at some things; and at some things, he hasn't. That's part of life and growing up.

"I've got my faults, and I'm sure you've got yours. His just happens to be where the public eye sees them all the time. You and I can hide ours a lot better, because only a few people may pick up on our emotions or what maybe trips our trigger. You know what I mean? With him, the media is always there, they're always looking for it -- and when something happens, I think they make a bigger deal out of it with him than they do with other people because it's happened before. I don't know if that's fair or unfair; I just think that's the world in which we live. And you have to be able to accept that part of responsibility for actions in your life, if you're going to say 'em or do 'em."

David Caraviello contributed to this report.