Author:
chrissy tohn
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Date Posted: 08:56:19 03/05/06 Sun
>Posted on Sat, Jul. 24, 2004
>
>
> I found this at thatsracin.com
>
>
>Is that the phone? It must be Tony Stewart
>
>By TOM SORENSEN
>
>The Charlotte Observer
>
>
>Tony Stewart calls by cell phone on the drive from the
>airport to Loudon, N.H., where he will race Sunday in
>the New England 300.
>The interview is the fourth we've done one-on-one.
>Friends usually ask me if an athlete is a good guy or
>a bad guy and sometimes I can tell them. But I don't
>know if Stewart is a good guy or a great guy or an
>instrument of evil.
>
>Stewart lives in a world in which you're good or bad,
>right or wrong, black or white. But mine includes a
>touch of gray. And I don't get to guess.
>
>I can tell you that Stewart owns a tiger, a monkey and
>a Chihuahua, drives a Hummer H2, admits he grabbed
>Brian Vickers after the Dodge/Save Mart 350 and
>believes a fellow named Gordon has more talent than
>any driver he's ever seen.
>
>As he talks about his animals, our cell connection
>fades and then returns.
>
>"If we get cut off, I'll call you back when I get
>closer to the track," Stewart, 33, says.
>
>The appeal of the tiger is obvious. Stewart's tiger
>lives at the Metrolina Zoo in Rockwell. The Chihuahua
>I also can understand. The Chihuahua is his confidant
>and every man can use a four-legged confidant.
>
>Stewart had a hilarious name for the monkey but
>elected not to use it. The name would have offended
>folks that look for a reason to be offended. So he
>calls the monkey Mojo. The name offends nobody.
>
>Stewart does. Fans are for him or against him. Kyle
>Petty is for him. Stewart pledged $1 million to Kyle
>and Pattie Petty's Victory Junction Gang Camp.
>(Stewart talks glowingly about the camp, but does not
>mention his contribution.)
>
>Ray Evernham, who owns the team for which Kasey Kahne
>drives, has been against him, as has driver Rusty
>Wallace. Each has been angry enough to talk about
>going after Stewart.
>
>When I ask Stewart about knocking Kahne out of the way
>two weeks ago at Chicagoland Speedway and about
>grabbing Vickers June 27 at Infineon Raceway, our
>connection again begins to fade.
>
>But instead of rallying, this time the signal does not
>return. Our conversation has ended. What are the odds
>of the signal going dead the moment I ask about the
>controversies that have defined his season and career?
>
>If I believed in conspiracies, I'd say Stewart must
>have been driving past a grassy knoll. But
>conspiracies are for people with no hobbies, no
>interests and, alas, no life.
>
>Twenty minutes later, the telephone rings.
>
>"Sorry," Stewart says.
>
>Stewart reiterates that he had nowhere to go to avoid
>Kahne. He says he has left messages for Kahne to tell
>him that.
>
>What about Vickers?
>
>"Vickers spun out after contact with Dale (Earnhardt)
>Jr.," says Stewart. "But he apparently thinks it was
>me. And he visibly showed his displeasure when he
>drove by in the garage."
>
>How?
>
>"By holding up less than five fingers," Stewart says.
>
>Stewart says he approached Vickers' Chevrolet to
>explain what happened and Vickers, who was still
>strapped in, smirked.
>
>"I hit his headrest," says Stewart. "I didn't hit him."
>
>Stewart says Vickers continued to smirk.
>
>"So I grabbed him by his uniform and said, 'You're
>going to listen to me.' "
>
>Members of Vickers' crew pulled Stewart off.
>
>Stewart says that for him neither episode lingered.
>
>"What goes on is the media perspective of it all," he
>says. "It was not nearly as bad as the media made it
>seem."
>
>The people in racing whose opinions I respect most
>say, almost as one, that Stewart and Jeff Gordon are
>the sport's most talented drivers.
>
>Who do you think is?
>
>"Jeff Gordon and Robby Gordon probably have the most
>natural talent of everybody out there," says Stewart.
>"Man, that's hard. I try to think of guys that I could
>take out of a (Nextel) Cup car and put them in any
>kind of race car and they're going to go fast."
>
>Jeff and Robby Gordon competed in open wheel racing
>before moving to NASCAR, as did Stewart.
>
>"I have to say that Robby has more natural talent than
>any driver I've ever seen," says Stewart.
>
>Is Robby as talented as you are?
>
>"Yeah," says Stewart. "Maybe more."
>
>The more time I spend with athletes, the more I
>appreciate candor. Ask a question and Stewart will
>answer it - except for one.
>
>Why a monkey?
>
>He pauses.
>
>"You know, I don't know," he says.
I just visited the Metrolina Zoo for the first time and if I were Stewart I would spend more money helping a well needed cause and stop bragging about owning a tiger and monkey that are kept in less than perfect conditions. Do something right, stewart. Help raise money, have a fund raiser. Want people to look up to you, take care of the all the animals!
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