While stopped at a traffic light the other day, I couldn't help but smile at the driver next to me.

Displayed in the window of her Tahoe was a decal that read: "1/4 Midget Mom."

We exchanged glances and I admired the mom for supporting her child's non-traditional sport of choice in a suburb filled with socialites and soccer moms.

“

Anyone that could actually raise me and not want to kill me or kick me out of the house has got to be a very patient person. That's my mom.

”

TONY STEWART

But as quick as that stoplight turned green, my admiration dissipated and panic set in.

As an expectant mother, I freaked out for a moment. Dreading the thought of raising a race car driver, I thought, "Wholly cow, what if the little boy growing inside me wants to 'go fast' and has me schlepping to dirt tracks all over Indiana from Kokomo to Haubstadt and everywhere in between?"

I immediately brainstormed ways to insulate my future son from the racing world. Deflated, I soon realized that would be next to impossible. We live in Indianapolis, the racing capital of the world, and his mother earns a living by attending and writing about NASCAR races.

Deferring to Plan B, I could enroll my young son into summer theater camps and convince him boys who wear black, skinny jeans are cool. Of course, that would never work considering his father was a three-sport college athlete who secretly wishes he could open his own driving range and live life as Roy "Tin Cup" McAvoy.

The entire 10-minute meltdown in the car had me wondering what motherhood was and continues to be like for NASCAR moms such as Carol Bickford, mother of Jeff Gordon; Diane Newman, mother of Ryan Newman; or better yet, Pam Boas, mother of the one and only Tony Stewart.

Oh, you know that woman had her hands full.

"She's a pretty patient woman," Stewart said. "Anyone that could actually raise me and not want to kill me or kick me out of the house has got to be a very patient person. That's my mom. She's a very patient lady with a great heart and she's really good with people."

Getting emotional, I wondered what I would have to do over the course of my son's life to earn such high praise.

After speaking to Boas, who will accompany her son across the proverbial Mother's Day stage at Darlington Raceway on Saturday, I have a pretty good idea. Yes, all the successful race car drivers on the circuit today had father's steering their careers, but it was the support of the moms in the pits providing the unwavering support and constant encouragement that fostered the confidence of drivers such as Stewart.

"My whole family supported me, basically," Stewart said. "Mom was a little more reserved and a little more quiet about it than my father was. My father was kind of the ring leader. He was the one who made all the decisions on what we did and didn't do. While she was a little bit reserved, she was, and still is, one of my biggest supporters." (Continued)