Stewart...Sport Needs Him

Hear a lot of people say they hate Tony Stewart.  Why?  I know the guy has had  a fair share of growing up problems over the years.  He was hated because he always felt there was a level of racing that he was at that no every driver felt he was at. Tony had it easy coming up.  Had the best cars, best crews, best that money could by.  By the mid 80's he was a dirt track name that everyone knew of.  However when he'd come to visiting tracks...Tony was not someone that you'd really want to be around

Tony's nickname is, "Smoke" and for good reason.  He's got the worst temper of any racer that i've ever read about or seen.  He had only one thing on his mind when he came to a track...win and win big.  It  was nothing for him to have to get even more controversial. Tony would not tolerate any racer coming close to him when he was leading.  Racing hard was one thing.  Racing hard agaisnt Tony when he was up front was another.  It was his belief he was above competition...yet sometimes the competition didn't buckle to him.

Racing on the dirt track fell old to Tony and even though he'd ran the Indy 500 many times and will always be an open wheel lover, his heart lied on the big time.  NASCAR came calling in the late 90's as the sport really blew up.  Joe Gibbs snapped him up and he immediately found a calling on asphalt even though it was something he was never comfortable doing.  Had it not been for Big E helping him out to get some guidance in his head...he'd of quit, or been dead.

Tony is good for racing thoug in so many ways.  He loves the sport and doesn't care the cookie cutter images you see in pro sports.  Dude is a racer and is a racer no matter his money or fame.  He's mellowed out more over the years and with him owning Eldora now, he gets his chance to come back and show his roots.  But the bottom line is he races hard every night and that is what you have to like in the guy.