INDIANAPOLIS -- The big man has always seemed as comfortable working the land as he has on the racetrack, and in both cases the machinery risks turning into a twisted heap. A.J. Foyt has survived more auto racing crashes than anyone can remember, including one in 1990 that crushed both of his legs. Less than a year later, he qualified second for the Indianapolis 500. But he was almost done in last August when a bulldozer he was operating slipped off a banking and into a lake.

Tony Stewart was reminded of this recently, not long after he told a friend that he had recently spent seven hours on a tractor trolling about his Indiana farm. "You know," the friend said, "you sound just like the old man." The old man in this instance being a 73-year-old, four-time Indianapolis 500 winner who's generally regarded as the greatest American ever to put foot to accelerator.

At first, Stewart didn't understand. Then his buddy reminded him of Foyt's near-death bulldozer experience, and the light bulb went off. "I'm like, oh my God, I am starting to become more and more like him as this goes on," the two-time NASCAR champion said. "It's not planned that way, that's just what happens. We just enjoy the same things. It's like we're twin brothers who were born 30 years or 20 years apart. But I'm proud of that. If you can be a lot like your childhood hero and not try to live that life, if that's the way it works out, I'm proud of that."

14 is for Foyt

Tony Stewart made official his car plans for the Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet for 2009, and his number will honor his hero.

• Complete story, click here
• Stewart happy to be back
• Sound off: Tony's number
• Video: Stewart unveils look

On Friday Stewart unveiled the car he will drive next season for soon-to-be rechristened Stewart-Haas Racing, a No. 14 Chevrolet backed by Old Spice and Office ($10 fine if you say Home) Depot. To Stewart, there was no question about which numeral would appear on his car. Foyt drove the No. 14 to victory at Indianapolis in 1967 and '77, and made it famous in open-wheel circles by winning three circuit titles. In 1991, both the U.S. Auto Club and the now-defunct CART series declared that the 14 was reserved exclusively for Foyt as long as he stayed active as a driver or owner, and would retire with him. Foyt uses the number today on his IndyCar Series team.

Its NASCAR results have been decidedly more mediocre, the number having been used by a series of struggling teams -- including one owned by Foyt itself -- since its heyday in the 1950s and '60s with drivers like Jim Paschal and Fonty Flock. Stewart promises to change all that, speaking of winning races and championships with the same number of his childhood hero, a man he took to immediately when he saw him banging on his car with a hammer during the Indianapolis 500. Of course, Foyt eventually dropped the hammer, jumped back in the car and returned to the race.

Idolatry turned into a business relationship, beginning in the mid-1990s when Foyt and partner George Snider gave Stewart a chance in a USAC silver crown car. In 1995 Foyt took Stewart to Phoenix for a five-day test in preparation for the debut of the Indy Racing League the next season, and a friendship was formed.

"I got to spend a lot of one-on-one time with A.J., and that's something," Stewart said. "If you have a childhood hero, and you get to spend five days with your childhood hero and cut up and laugh and make jokes with each other, once that week was over, we've been great friends ever since."

Similarities abound, on and off the track. Foyt won the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500, and the 24 Hours of LeMans; Stewart has won two NASCAR championships, three USAC titles and an Indy Racing League crown. They're a pair of incessant pot-stirrers, despite the decades-wide gap in their age. In 2004, Foyt offered Stewart a chance to practice and perhaps even qualify a car for the Indianapolis 500, and the NASCAR driver was all suited up when attorneys told him contractual obligations precluded him from taking to the track. Foyt once threw a fuel-mileage-calculating laptop off his pit box after his driver ran out of gas, and tussled with Arie Luyendyk in Victory Lane; Stewart has knocked a recorder out of a reporter's hand and tussled with Jeff Gordon and Robby Gordon in the garage.

And neither has forgotten where they came from. Despite their successes and occasional tempers, Foyt and Stewart remain relatively uncomplicated, grounded people who seem most at home in the country or tilling a patch of land. Stewart spends much of his time in his hometown of Columbus, Ind.; Foyt lives in Hockley, Texas.

"They're driven competitors. They give the impression of having a short fuse, and they do. They say with they think. But they both privately are very generous people, and they don't forget," said Donald Davidson, historian at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, site of Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. "The friends they had from a long time ago didn't get left behind, certainly with Stewart, and I think probably with Foyt. If you look at Foyt's crew, it's the same people every year. Maybe that's a problem, and maybe they'll have a new engineer or something. But at least it's very refreshing to go by and see many of the same people he had 20 or 30 years ago."

And they're both more generous than they let on; perhaps impacted by the help they received from others on their respective paths to the top.

"Foyt, and I don't think he ever cared to have this known, but he always helped whenever a driver was injured, which doesn't happen much any more," Davidson said. "When a driver was injured, he would always make sure that transportation was taken care of and that the family would have a place to stay and all that kind of stuff. Tony does that. Of course, that's not an issue anymore. But there have been times when people that he knew were trying to run at racetrack A on Friday and racetrack B on Saturday, and it was a great distance. He sent the plane to get them from one place to another, and he wasn't even part of the trip."

Stewart never officially asked Foyt for permission to use his old number; the NASCAR driver left his cellphone on vacation during the recent off weekend, and Foyt was with his IndyCar team preparing for Saturday's race in Edmonton, Canada. But Stewart sent word through an intermediary, and the legend was more than pleased. Stewart knew he would be. It's amazing how two stubborn, fiery racecar drivers, who have each had run-ins with so many other people, can themselves get along so well.

"We've got the same personality," Stewart said. "I think we have such a high level of respect for each other that when we've disagreed, it usually doesn't last for very long. I couldn't count on one hand the number of times we've had disagreements with one another. Usually we're the ones starting the disagreements with other people and getting them going. It's been a relationship that's like the commercials -- this cost this much, this cost that much, and the rest is priceless. That's what my relationship with him has been like."

Others see it, too. "I think Tony and A.J. have a lot in common," four-time Brickyard champ Jeff Gordon said. "They're racers that just get into everything and anything and go out there and are competitive and have success at it. We don't see enough of that these days. It seems like more and more drivers kind of specialize in one area. You know, Tony and a couple other guys are really making a mark by doing a lot of different types of racing. I think it's fantastic. And I think just his personality and attitude, all that, I think he can definitely suit that 14 well."

It all leads to a natural question: Is Stewart this way because he's spent so much time around Foyt, seeing him first as an idol and later as a car owner and friend? Davidson doesn't think so. "Tony Stewart and A.J. Foyt are cut from similar cloth," the historian said. Although Foyt might be more technically minded -- a product of his era, when drivers built and repaired cars as well as drove them -- the two are "more alike than they know," said Robby Gordon, who has driven for Foyt and against Stewart for years in open-wheel as well as stock cars.

So how appropriate would it be if the old man were to leave his ranch for a few days next February, and instead watch Stewart try to win the Daytona 500 with the car number he made famous. "It would be cool if we could get him there," Stewart said. "If there's a laptop to be thrown, I'll let him do it."

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.