CHICAGO — Perhaps this is the last one of these for Tony Stewart, the last time to answer the somewhat entertaining questions and to skewer reporters for the lame ones at a media day.
For Chase Elliott, it was the first one, the bright-lights pre-staging to the rookie’s first Chase playoff run and likely the first of many to come.
But it will be the only one where Elliott gets to go head-to-head and fender-to-fender with Stewart. For that, the 20-year-old is thankful.
“Tony is a guy I’ve looked up to for a long time,” said Elliott, son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott. “As many of you guys know, Tony was the first guy, other than my dad, I was ever OK with pulling for. I’ve always had a lot of respect for him.”
It’s a mutual feeling, Stewart said, and one of the ties that binds the oldest and youngest competitors in the 16-driver Chase field.
Thursday was Stewart at his best in the Windy City’s South Side at the Ready. Set. Chase. launch events, offering witty barbs in one breath and suffering no fools in the next, all the while commanding the attention that a freewheeling three-time champion is prone to do. But the 45-year-old veteran was his most open in discussing his relationship with Elliott, who joins Denny Hamlin (2006) and Chris Buescher (2016) as the only rookies ever to qualify for Chase eligibility.
Stewart recognized the youngster’s focus early on, when Elliott and his father would pay visits to Stewart’s car at the race track. What Stewart said he noticed was an engaged kid, but one who was too shy to speak before his grade-school years — “I didn’t know if he was going to be mute or what,” Stewart said.
As the years moved on, Elliott began to open up more and his fandom for Stewart’s racing career began to grow. Eventually, the fondness for his own racing pursuits sprouted as well, steadily advancing up the NASCAR ladder to his current state as the premier series’ presumptive Sunoco Rookie of Year.
“That’s what was cool about him,” Stewart said. “I mean, you never dream at that spot, at that time, that these guys are going to grow up and they’re going to follow in their father’s footsteps. I’d say Chase has got an extremely good chance of being every bit as good if not better than his father, and his father was great.
“So, you know, it’s cool to say that I got to know these guys. I mean, John Hunter Nemechek, I was his very first sponsor when he was racing go-karts. You know, stuff like that. When you see these kids that are growing up now, you don’t realize how old you are until you realize how old they are now. Start doing the math. You’re like, hmm, it’s changed a lot.”
Stewart’s calculations this year seem to add up after a tumultuous last few seasons. He’s in his first Chase since 2012, has his first race victory since 2013 and will wrap up his final full season with a chance at a fourth championship. The upswing in performance stands in stark contrast to the lean years that were marked by personal hardships away from the NASCAR world.
The adversity from his extracurricular events was almost enough to make him walk away from stock-car racing’s big leagues after the 2015 season, but Stewart said he returned to bid his fans farewell. Elliott — a fan himself — is among those selfishly happy that he did, providing a 10-race denouement to his own Hall of Fame career.
“I’m glad that he decided to wait one more year because that is a pretty special moment for me to be able to race against one of my heroes like that,” Elliott said. “So, you know, I don’t necessarily look at him any different than I do anybody else when it comes to a competitor or how you treat anyone. But, you know, I think he’s obviously done a good job. I have a lot of respect for him. I expect him to be strong in these next few weeks.”
While Stewart acknowledges that his time as a full-time driver in NASCAR is coming to a close, he’s hoping to rekindle some of the magic from his championship charge in 2011. Thursday, he superstitiously reiterated his refrain that he was “wasting a spot” in that year’s Chase, when he turned a winless regular season into a stirring five-win playoff run.
Stewart still pines for a last hurrah behind the wheel, starting this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, site of Sunday’s Chase-opening Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). But win or lose when his driving days are done, he already sees a bright future in the sport coming from the next generation, from a driver he first encountered as a quiet kid from Georgia with a rich racing pedigree.
“He’s definitely going to be a marquee guy. I mean, he’s already a marquee guy and is in his rookie season,” Stewart said of Elliott. “As time goes on, some of us that are getting up there in age and are retiring, he’s going to be the guy that’s going to carry the flag and carry the torch for NASCAR.”