Weekend That Was: Chicagoland Speedway

Which Tony Stewart one meets depends entirely upon circumstances, mood swings that are at various times both predictable and impossible to predict, and perhaps even the precise alignment of all the planets in our solar system.

No one really knows for sure.

Will it be Good Tony? Or Bad Tony?

Happy Tony? Or Angry Tony?

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He reminds me of the pint-sized character in one of Will Ferrell's movies. No, not Talladega Nights -- but Elf.

You remember the guy: arrogant, obviously talented, in much demand, he's called in to save the day when all else goes awry at a book publishing company. He's both endearing and terribly frightening at the same time.

When Ferrell's character busts onto the scene, he infuriates the little guy by commenting: "My, you're an angry little elf, aren't you? Does Santa know you're here?"

Then said little guy comes across the table and kicks Ferrell's butt before storming from the room.

Anyone paying any attention at all to the Nextel Cup scene over the weekend witnessed the best and worst of Tony. On Friday, he was at his surly worst -- needlessly sparring with the media and ridiculously blaming them for all his latest self-inflicted troubles (read more).

Earlier that day, Denny Hamlin, Stewart's teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, had spent a considerable amount of time spilling his guts to the media. Hamlin clearly was frustrated and upset about Stewart's handling of an incident one week earlier during the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway, as well he should have been.

Hamlin obviously wanted to talk. Stewart would later turn it so that, in his mind at least, the evil media somehow orchestrated it all, fueling the fire that he himself lit by first running into Hamlin from behind on Lap 14 of a 400-mile race and then by ripping Hamlin for not getting out of his way, among other things (watch video). He also accused Hamlin of trying to wreck him during Pepsi 400 practice a day earlier and questioned if Hamlin knew the meaning of "teammate."

The comments blindsided Hamlin, who refused to take or return a Stewart phone call later in the week and eventually called for a public apology that he knew was a pipe dream.

"Even if I was at fault," complained Hamlin, "he shouldn't have thrown me so far under the bus."

Well, he certainly shouldn't have thrown him so far under and then backed up and ran over him two or three more times. It was understandable that Hamlin was upset. It also should have been understandable to Stewart that he then would in turn be asked about all things Hamlin -- the kid's emotional state, the Stewart-related comments Hamlin had made, whether or not the two had talked as Hamlin said they needed to.

Yet Stewart acted like the whole ordeal was a media creation. He didn't want to talk about it -- when all he had to say to defuse the situation was that maybe he hadn't handled it in the best manner and, yes, he intended to talk with Hamlin about it. In other words, all he had to do was tell the truth.

Instead, Bad Tony wanted to spar -- verbally.

Asked what the difference was between talking about the Hamlin incident on his national radio show and discussing it with the group of media in front of him at the time, Stewart snapped: "Because I choose to do it there. I don't choose to do it with this group of people."

When one brave reporter protested that "this group of people" can't question him on his show and that he should let the media call in, Stewart shrugged and added: "Call in."

Um, let me think about that.

Nope. I choose not to do it.

I've got better things to do, like taking out the garbage or something like that.

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

When yet another reporter tried to break the tension by changing subjects and asking Stewart if he was concerned about Hendrick Motorsports building a super-team by recently adding Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony the Tiger didn't take the bait to lighten the mood.

"We don't worry about it because we've got enough to worry about keeping our own cars going," Stewart said with an edge to his voice. "That's why you have a job -- so you can worry about the stuff that none of us want to worry about."

Well, actually, no. That's not why anyone in the media has a job. The job of the media is to report objectively about what we see -- and what we see with Stewart sometimes is quite baffling. It's almost always interesting, and for that we are grateful. At least he doesn't spout boring pre-packaged comments like a great many of the other drivers out there.

He definitely got on a roll later in the weekend after the Friday incident. First he got on a roll on the track, where he won for the first time in 20 races this season by capturing the USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

That brought out the Good Tony, who got on a roll in the Chicagoland media center afterward (Press Pass).

He wasn't just Good Tony. He was Tony the Tame.

Well, more like Tony the Stand-up Comic.

He was downright jovial, initiating jokes and one light-hearted comment after another that had much of the room rolling in laughter, and the rest rolling their eyes in disbelief.

Asked if he wished he could take the momentum from his dominating victory at Chicagoland right into another race weekend instead of taking the week off before the next race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Good Tony grinned.

"You have no idea how glad I am to have a week off," he said. "I'm taking this momentum on vacation.

"And I've got a case of Schlitz that I fully intend on getting to the bottom of the cardboard box on tonight, even if I have to do it by myself. I don't care, it's going to happen. That's if I don't pass out first."

Then he punctuated the air with a burst of laughter before continuing.

"You guys laugh at me like nobody drinks Schlitz anymore," he added. "The good thing is they stock it close to home and it's only about eight bucks a case, cold. And if you've got a couple of roommates and you've got seven in the fridge when you leave, you've got seven in the fridge when you come back. You're not supporting everybody else's drinking habits.

"Mike Arning, my publicist, taught me how to drink responsibly. Thank you, Mike. Mike will be available for one-on-one interviews after this."

Then Good Tony laughed heartily again. It was funny stuff. And before anyone takes it the wrong way, he was joking -- and after all the driving he did earlier Sunday, he obviously wasn't planning on driving anywhere after his mass consumption of cheap beer.

It made everyone think: geez, when was the last time you even saw a can of Schlitz beer, much less drank one? And geez, when was the last time you saw Good Tony on such an engaging, entertaining, comedic roll?

And then it hit you: geez, it had been long time since Stewart won a race, enabling Good Tony to emerge for all the public to see.

The guy should think about bringing him out more often, regardless of what's happening on the track.

Happy teammate
Hamlin seemed genuinely pleased for Stewart and the No. 20 Chevrolet team after Sunday's race, drawing a comparison between their collective state of mind to what his No. 11 team's state of mind was before they registered their first win of the season two weeks earlier at New Hampshire.

"I'm really happy for them. I know they're kind of stressed out like we were," Hamlin said. "To finally get a win and do it in the dominating fashion that he did was really good for that team. It seems like they always bounce back. Whenever there is adversity, it always seems like they're able to pull together and come back and get a win. It's good for them. We got ours a couple weeks ago and they got theirs this week."

As with his team, he said he thinks Sunday's victory for Stewart will propel the No. 20 team to greater achievements this season.

"I think it's going to be a huge boost for that team," Hamlin said. "They were getting frustrated, similar to what we were. They're not going to try any harder. They're doing everything they can every week. And I think confidence goes a long way in this sport, and I think this is going to give them the confidence that they need."

Clear air
It looked for a moment like Hamlin might be headed for more controversy with another driver following the race at Chicagoland, when he exchanged some pointed post-race words with Jeff Gordon, the current leader in driver points. Hamlin is second in points.

"I just thought at certain points in the race it seemed like we were racing each other really hard. So I asked him if I did anything to him, and he said no, so we're fine. I think it's just if I had the guy who's right behind me in points -- not right behind, but second in points -- but I'd probably race him pretty hard to. I just wanted to kind of clear the air there.

"I felt like I haven't raced anyone harder or done anything wrong here lately. Jeff was just racing me a little bit harder than what I wanted at certain points of the race. So I just asked him about it and he cleared it up for me."

Better teammates?
As for Hamlin and Stewart, they both claimed that they actually worked better together during Sunday's event than they have in quite some time.

"I know we raced each other for what seemed like the first quarter of the race," Hamlin said. "We were within five car-lengths of each other. He would motion and say things to me to help me with my line and whatnot. So I think he's showing his remorse in different ways than saying he's sorry."

In other words, Hamlin no longer is holding out for that public apology from Stewart that he knows isn't coming. He added that both he and Stewart received the message on teamwork loud and clear from Joe Gibbs Racing team owner Joe Gibbs and team president J.D. Gibbs over the weekend.

"I think Coach and J.D. were [clear] for the most part, because they work awful hard to make these teams as strong as they are. And what they have expressed to us is that it goes further than just me and Tony. There are 400 families in all that's involved in this race [organization] that's affected by our relationship. So we need to basically suck it up and do what we have to do to be good teammates. I think moving forward, it's going to be a great relationship between us."

Pit Stops
• Yes, there were other things that happened during the weekend that was, and they had nothing to do with either Stewart or Hamlin. Among them, Kevin Harvick continued to display an amazing prowess at the Chicagoland Speedway. He won the Busch Series race there on Saturday and was in the hunt for a long time in the Cup race on Sunday, leading on four different occasions for a total of 54 laps before finishing fourth (watch video).

• After losing his power steering with 56 laps to go Sunday, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was asked if he planned to go to the gym and work out to make his muscles stronger on Monday. "Nope," he replied. "I'm going to sit on the porch, and drink some cold beer." Now that Budweiser is on the way out as the official sponsor of the car he drives, maybe he can try one of Stewart's closely guarded cans of Schlitz.

• Mike Skinner continued his season-long domination in the Truck Series, winning at Kentucky Speedway by leading 135 of 150 laps (watch video). It was his fourth win of the season and his lead in the point standings now stands at 164 points ahead of Ron Hornaday, who is second. Most impressive Skinner statistic: he has completed all 2,193 laps of the 13 Truck races this season, has led in every race, and has finished out of the top 10 only once.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.