Anthony Wayne "Tony" Stewart (born May 20, 1971) is an American auto racing driver and owner.[1] Throughout his racing career, Stewart has won titles in Indy cars and stock cars, as well as midget, sprint and USAC Silver Crown cars, giving him the recognition of "one of the finest racers of his generation." [2] Stewart currently owns and drives the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1/Burger King Chevrolet Impala in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for his own team, Stewart-Haas Racing under crew chief Darian Grubb. From 1999 until 2008, he drove the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing car, under crew chief Greg Zipadelli, with The Home Depot as the primary sponsor. His ten year tenure with the same team, sponsor, and crew chief is a NASCAR record. Stewart is also the only driver to win both the Winston Cup under the old points system, and the Nextel Cup under the chase playoff format, winning those championships in 2002 and 2005 respectively. As well as being the o! nly Driver to have won a championship in IndyCar and in the Sprint Cup Series . In 2011, Stewart became the first owner-driver since Alan Kulwicki to win the Cup Series championship, and ended Jimmie Johnson's streak of consecutive championships at five. Contents 1 Early life 1.1 IndyCar results 1.2 Indy 500 results 2 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2.1 Joe Gibbs Racing (1999-2008) 2.1.1 1999 season 2.1.2 2000 season 2.1.3 2001 season 2.1.4 2002 season 2.1.5 2003 season 2.1.6 2004 season 2.1.7 2005 season 2.1.8 2006 season 2.1.9 2007 season 2.1.10 2008 season 2.2 Stewart Haas Racing (2009-present) 2.2.1 2009 season 2.2.2 2010 season 2.2.3 2011 season 3 Other Racing Series 4 "Smoke" nickname 5 Racing record 5.1 IRL statistics 5.2 NASCAR statistics 6 Racecar owner 6.1 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (2009) 7 Daytona Speedweeks 7.1 United States Auto Club 7.2 Other entities 8 Racetrack owner 9 Tony Stewart Foundation 10 TV & radio 11 Video games 12 Races won 12.1 Winston/Nex! tel/Sprint Cup (44 career wins) 12.2 Busch/Nationwide Series (! 10 caree r wins) 12.2.1 2011 (1 Win) 12.2.2 2010 (1 Win) 12.2.3 2009 (1 Win) 12.2.4 2008 (5 Wins) 12.2.5 2006 (1 Win) 12.2.6 2005 (1 win) 12.3 Craftsman/Camping World Truck Series (2 career wins) 12.3.1 2003 (1 win) 12.3.2 2002 (1 win) 12.4 International Race of Champions (4 career wins plus championship) 12.4.1 2006 Crown Royal IROC XXX (2 wins) 12.4.2 2002 True Value IROC XXVI (1 win) 12.4.3 2001 True Value IROC XXV (1 win ) 12.5 IRL IndyCar Series (3 career wins plus championship) 12.5.1 1998 (2 wins) 12.5.2 1997 (1 win) 13 References 14 External links [edit] Early life Tony Stewart was born in Columbus, Indiana on May 20, 1971, and attended Columbus North High School during his youth. He grew up racing go karts and was successful very early, winning a World Karting Association championship in 1987. He moved up to the United Midget Racing Association (UMRA)where he raced TQ (three quarter) midgets until 1991, when he again moved up this time to the United States Auto Club (USAC) s! eries with help from one of his karting sponsors and friend Mark Dismore. Stewart was the USAC Rookie of the Year in 1991, fifth in 1993 after winning the Hut Hundred,[3] and was the National Midget series champion in 1994. In 1995, Stewart became the first driver to win USAC's version of the Triple Crown, earning championships in all three of USAC's major divisions, National Midget, Sprint, and Silver Crown. The highlights of the year were winning the Hut Hundred and 4-Crown Nationals. When he wasn't racing IndyCars, he raced stock cars. In 1996, Tony made his NASCAR Busch Series debut, driving for car owner Harry Rainer. In nine races, however, he had only a best finish of 16th place. He had more success in a one-time ride in the Craftsman Truck Series, where he finished 10th. Tony Stewart's entry from the 1999 Indianapolis 500. Tony was poised to improve his Indy Racing League (IRL) standing in 1997, but struggled with finishing at times. He failed to finish the first th! ree races of a ten race schedule, but recovered to finish seco! nd at Ph oenix. At that year's Indy 500, Stewart had a good enough car to win his first IRL race, leading 64 laps. However, he trailed off near the end of the race and settled for 5th. Tony finally got his first career win at Pikes Peak, where he led all but seven laps of a 200 lap race. He became the leading contender for the series' championship after a bad slump knocked points leader Davey Hamilton out of first place. Despite an average end to his season, finishing 7th, 14th, and 11th, and five DNFs, Stewart did just enough to beat Hamilton for the IRL title. He also raced in a few midget events, finishing thirteenth and eleventh in the 1997 and 1998 USAC national points, and winning the Copper Classic both years. Between his time in USAC and the IRL, Stewart earned the nickname of Smoke, first for slipping the right rear tire during dirt races, and for blowing his engine often during his '97 championship run.[3] As he had done the previous year, he raced a handful of Busch Series! races. This time, he was racing for Joe Gibbs, NFL Hall of Fame head coach of the Washington Redskins who was having major success with driver Bobby Labonte in Winston Cup. When Stewart was able to finish races, he finished in the top 10, and had a 3rd place finish at Charlotte. Stewart so impressed Gibbs that he was signed to drive the majority of the Busch schedule in 1998 to go along with a full-time IRL schedule. The double duty did not affect his performance in either series. In the IRL, he won twice and finished 3rd in the championship. His season was something of a disappointment, especially as he finished last in the Indy 500 because of an engine failure. On the Busch side, he finished in the top-five five times in 22 starts. He came extremely close to winning his first Busch Series race at Rockingham, but was beaten on a last lap pass by Matt Kenseth. Stewart finished a solid 2nd place in 2 (of 31) starts, ahead of six drivers with more starts, and had an average ! finish that was comparable to some of the series' top 10 finis! hers. Gi bbs had enough confidence in Tony that he was moved into Cup for the 1999 season. With that move, Stewart ended his three year career as a full time IRL driver. [edit] IndyCar results Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Rank Points 1996 Team Menard WDW 2 PHX 11 INDY 24 8th 68 1996–1997 Team Menard NHM 12 LVS 21 WDW 10 PHX 2 INDY 5 TXS 5 PPIR 1 CLT 7 NH2 14 LV2 11 1st 278 1998 Team Menard WDW 1 PHX 2 INDY 33 TXS 14 NHM 1 DOV 8 CLT 21 PPI 3 ATL 5 TX2 20 LVS 14 3rd 289 1999 Tri-Star Racing WDW PHX INDY 9 TXS PPIR ATL DOV PPI2 LVS TX2 33nd 22 2001 Target Chip Ganassi PHX HMS ATL INDY 6 TXS PPIR RIR KAN NSH KTY STL CHI TX2 39th 28 [edit] Indy 500 results Year Chassis Engine Start Finish Team 1996 Lola Menard-Buick 1st 24th Menard 1997 G-Force Oldsmobile 2nd 5th Menard 1998 Dallara Oldsmobile 4th 33rd Menard 1999 Dallara Oldsmobile 24th 9th Tri-Star 2001 G-Force Oldsmobile 7th 6th Ganassi [edit] NASCAR Sprint Cup Series [edit] Joe Gibbs Racing (1999-2008) [edit] 1999 s! eason Stewart started his Winston Cup career in 1999 with a bang, as he qualified his #20 Home Depot Pontiac in second place in his first Cup race, the Daytona 500. He showed courage in one of the Gatorade Twin 125 races, when involved in a great battle with Dale Earnhardt for the win. The Intimidator came out on top, but Stewart had nonetheless impressed quite a few people with his performance. In the 500 itself, Stewart ran near the front until problems with the car relegated him to a 28th place finish. Stewart spent most of his rookie season wowing people, as his car was often in the top 5. He won a pair of pole positions at short tracks, and set a series record for victories by a rookie with three, Richmond, Phoenix and Homestead. (Stewart's record would hold until 2002, when Jimmie Johnson duplicated the feat by winning three times; Carl Edwards won four times in his first full Cup season but was not regarded as a rookie by NASCAR standards.) He finished his first year! an unprecedented 4th in points, the highest points finish by ! a rookie in the modern era (which held until 2006 when his then-teammate Denny Hamlin finished 3rd), and only bested by James Hylton, who finished 2nd as a first-timer in 1966. Not surprisingly, he ran away with the Winston Cup Rookie of the Year award. Stewart also attempted to race 1,100 miles (1,800 km) on Memorial Day weekend, as he competed in both the Indy 500 during the day and the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, N.C., at night. He finished in the top 10 at both races; ninth in the 1999 Indy 500 and fourth at Lowe's Motor Speedway. However, he only completed 1,090 miles (1,750 km) of the scheduled 1,100. [edit] 2000 season Stewart showed no signs of a sophomore slump in Winston Cup in 2000, winning six races at Martinsville, New Hampshire, Michigan, Homestead and 2 at Dover. However, he "slipped" to sixth place in the standings because of a handful of DNFs and an increase in the number of competitive drivers, among them his teammate Labonte, who won the Cup championship! . Tony also began to get some bad press for his on-track incidents. The best known of these came at Watkins Glen, when he and Jeff Gordon tangled and crashed. Stewart made his displeasure toward Gordon known in an obscenity-laden tirade. Stewart won the Turkey Night Grand Prix midget car event at Irwindale, California, which he called, "one of his greatest wins ever." [3] [edit] 2001 season Stewart's 2001 season got off to a frightening start, as he was involved in a spectacular crash in the Daytona 500 where his car violently flipped over several times toward the middle of the race that also had the final-lap crash that killed Dale Earnhardt. He walked away unscathed, recovered to win three more races a
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