Tony Stewart can toss a wicked one-liner, and looks like he could toss a haymaker or two if the circumstance called for it. Kevin Harvick seems like he could do a little more than shoving if push came to shove. Carl Edwards has the upper body of a mixed martial arts fighter. With his steely eyes and iron jaw, Bobby Labonte looks like the kind of guy you want on your side if something bad is going to go down.

While we're well past the era -- at least we hope so -- when NASCAR drivers settled on-track altercations later with their fists, the Sprint Cup garage still is a place populated by tough guys who chose a tough way to make a living. There are men with short fuses, men with hot tempers, and men with smoldering countenances who you just don't want to mess with at the wrong time.

No more back talking

Someone might ask. But Jeff Gordon won't be listening. He's done talking about his back.

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Oh, sure, the rewards are copious; top drivers make lots of money, date beautiful women, and we assume have little trouble getting good tables at fine restaurants. But let's be honest: this is a dog-eat-dog sport that almost demands a willingness to put your grandmother into the wall, and point a finger in her face afterward. The cockpit of a NASCAR race car is no place for the meek.

So yes, the sport is full of tough drivers. But right now, there's one tougher than any of them. And it's not who you think.

It's Jeff Gordon.

OK, OK, I hear you. Here we have a slight-of-build guy who has his own wine label and is married to a supermodel. Terribly fortunate, of course. Living the high life, no question, and deservedly so. But tough? The same guy who once cried at the postseason banquet? The driver who dropped out of racing in IROC and the now-Nationwide Series? The dude whose matinee-idol visage looks like it's never taken a punch? The guy who'd rather spend the upcoming off week on a beach in the Caribbean rather than in a dirt car in the middle of nowhere?

Yes, that Jeff Gordon. He's the toughest son of a gun racing, no question. Because he's in pain right now, people. He has a lower back that goes into spasms every time he's involved in a bad wreck. After Monday's terrible accident at Watkins Glen International, where Sam Hornish Jr. hit a tire barrier and spun like an airplane propeller back into the path of Gordon's onrushing No. 24 car (watch video), he was hurting so badly you could see it in his face. There's nothing they can do, he said. He just has to manage it and hope to avoid bad accidents, which is like asking a telemarketer to avoid hang-ups.

"My back can't stand too many hits," he said.

Nevertheless, he sucks it up and deals with it. He talks about his back when he's asked questions about it, but he doesn't complain. He'll strap in Sunday at Michigan International Speedway knowing that he could wind up in the same situation he was in Monday. Next week at Bristol, he'll slide into his car knowing full well that he's going to be in agony for 500 physical laps. Sure, he's securely in the Chase right now, and if he wanted Gordon could probably start the Bristol race and then turn the No. 24 over to a relief driver. But there's no absolutely indication that he will. He'll almost certainly do what he does every week -- set his jaw, hope for the best, and do his job even though it's going to hurt like hell.

That's tough. Damn tough.

Of course, drivers competing when they're hurt is nothing new. Ten years ago, Mark Martin broke his wrist, his kneecap, and one of his ribs in a practice crash before the summer event at Daytona, and was in the car the next night because he was in a championship race and he couldn't afford to give up the points. In 2006, Stewart started a race with a cracked shoulder blade he had suffered the week before. In perhaps the epitome of toughness -- or stubbornness, depending on your point of view -- Ricky Rudd used duct tape to hold his eyes open for a Daytona 500 qualifying race in 1984. Rudd's car had rolled seven times in an accident in the Busch Clash, and his face was so battered and swollen he could barely keep his eyes open on his own.

And yet, those were all injuries that eventually healed with time. Gordon's back, though, shows all the signs of being one of those chronic nuisances that he's just going to have to deal with. You hope not, of course. You hope he'll rest it during the offseason and come back in 2010 good as new. But he's had MRIs done on it, he said, and the doctors don't see anything obviously wrong. He's had one treatment to deal with the pain, but said at Indianapolis that the anti-inflammatory injection didn't do much good and he likely wouldn't have another. As recently as Pocono two weeks ago, though, he said his back felt better and the discomfort was at a level he could manage. Then came the big hit at Watkins Glen.

"You take three or four steps forward up to this point," he said, "and you take a hit like that and you take a couple of steps backward."

There's a lot of conversation right now about Gordon's back condition, especially among fans worried over whether it will force a premature end to his career. On that subject, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Gordon is a smart guy who has his priorities in line. One reason he dropped out of IROC and then-Busch competition so many years ago was because he didn't want to subject himself to unnecessary risk. He's never seemed the type of guy who's going to drive until he's 50. He's been his own man throughout his entire career, and he knows his limit, and when he reaches it he'll step out of the car and move into a management role with Hendrick Motorsports. Nobody is going to have to twist his arm.

Hopefully, that time is still a while off. Gordon says his back condition isn't causing him any permanent damage, and that it's all a matter of managing pain. Of course, that didn't make him feel any better as he climbed out of his crumpled race car in Watkins Glen. That knowledge won't ease the hurt at Bristol, or at Dover, or at Martinsville, or anywhere else where he's involved in a big crash. There are races where he's simply going to have to grit his teeth and suffer. There are accidents that will leave his back hurting worse than before. Pain is a part of his life right now. He doesn't know when, or if, it's going to end.

And yet, come Sunday afternoon, he'll be back in the car like he always is. No, he's not a big guy, or a fighter, or someone who tries to intimidate his opponents. But these days, Jeff Gordon is just the toughest driver in the garage.

The opinions expressed are those solely of the writer.