FANTASY NASCAR Racin

an American auto racing driver, businessman and team owner. Throughout his racing career, Stewart has won titles in Indy cars and stock cars as well as midget, sprint and USAC Silver Crown cars. Stewart drove the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for his own team, Stewart-Haas Racing under crew chief Steve Addington. 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 Sprint Cup under the chase playoff format, winning those championships in 2002 and 2005 respectively. In 2011, Stewart became the first owner-driver since Alan Kulwicki to win the Cup Series championship, which ended Jimmie Johnson's streak of consecutive championships at five. He is the only driver to win the NASCAR championship under three different sponsorship titles Winston in 2002, Nextel in 2005, and Sprint in 2011 as well as being the only

driver in history to win a championship in both Indy Car and NASCAR. He is also the first driver in Cup to win the championship by virtue of a tie breaker (number of wins during the season is the first level tie breaker, Stewart had 5 wins, while eventual runner up Carl Edwards had one. Stewart was born in Columbus, Indiana, on May 20, 1971. 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) series 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, 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. His winning the Hut Hundred and 4-Crown Nationals were the highlights of the year. When he was not racing Indy Cars, he raced stock cars. In 1996, Stewart made his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut, driving for car owner Harry Rainer in his #15 car. In nine races, he had a best finish of 16th place. He had more success in a one-time ride in the Truck Series with Mueller Brothers racing, where he finished 10th. In 1997 he struggled to finish. He failed to finish the first three races of a ten race schedule, but recovered to come in second at Phoenix. At that year's Indy 500, Stewart's car was good enough to enable him to win his

first IRL race, leading 64 laps in his Menard's owned Glidden Sponsored Oldsmobile powered G-Force Chassis. However, he trailed off near the end of the race and settled for 5th place. He 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. As he had done the previous year, he raced a handful of Xfinity Series races in 1998. 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 Cup Series. 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 Xfinity 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. On the Xfinity side, he finished in the top-five five times in 22 starts. He came close to winning his first Xfinity Series race at Rockingham, but was beaten on a last lap pass by Matt Kenseth. Gibbs had enough confidence in Stewart 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. Stewart started his Cup career in 1999 with a bang, as he qualified his No. 20 Home Depot Pontiac in second place in the Daytona 500. He showed courage in one of the Gatorade Twin 125 races, when involved in a battle with Dale Earnhardt for the win.

Earnhardt came out on top, but Stewart had nonetheless impressed quite a few people with his performance. In the 500, 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 wins by a rookie with three: Richmond, Phoenix and Homestead. (Stewart's record would hold until 2002, when Jimmie Johnson tied 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 second as a first-timer in 1966. Not surprisingly, he ran away with the Cup Series Rookie of the Year award. Stewart showed no signs of a sophomore slump in the 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup Series, winning six races; at Martinsville, New Hampshire, Michigan, Homestead and two at Dover. He finished sixth in the points however. Stewart's 2001 season got off to a frightening start at the Daytona 500, when he was caught up in an 18 car crash on lap 173 on the back straightaway. Stewart was transported to Halifax Medical Center afterwards complaining of discomfort in his shoulder. Stewart's crash, as violent as it was, was greatly overshadowed when Dale Earnhardt was killed in a crash on the last lap of the same race. Stewart recovered to win three more races at Richmond, Infineon and Bristol, and,

as he'd done before, ran near the front most of the sea son. Statistically, he had a worse season than 2000, but he was the runner-up to Gordon in the final points standings. For the second time he ran "The Double" on Memorial Day Weekend, in spite of a 17 minute rain delay at Indianapolis. He finished 6th in the Indianapolis 500 and 3rd in the Coca-Cola 600, running all 1,100 miles of the two races. In 2002, he went on a hot streak in the final races, finishing consistently in the top five. At the end of the year Stewart held off a charging Mark Martin to win his first Winston Cup championship. In November 2004, Stewart became the owner of one of the most legendary short tracks in America, Eldora Speedway. Located in New Weston, Ohio, Eldora is a half-mile dirt track known to many as "Auto Racing's Showcase Since 1954." Stewart

began racing there in 1991 and continues racing in special events alongside other Sprint Cup drivers and dirt track legends. 2005 was one of Stewart's most successful years in the Cup series. He won five races, at Infineon, Daytona, New Hampshire, Watkins Glen and the Allstate 400 at his hometown track, a race that Stewart said he would give up his championship to win, and took with it the No. 1 seed heading into NASCAR's Chase for the Cup 10-race playoff. Following his second win of the season, Stewart began climbing the fence separating the fans from the race track after each victory, borrowing Indy Car Series driver Hélio Castroneves' trademark move. After winning the 2009 All-Star race Stewart was quoted as saying "I'm too damn fat to be climbing fences," and recently purchased $17,000 worth of exercise equipment to remedy the problem. It also led to sponsor Home Depot cashing in on Stewart's

success with some promotions reminiscent of Stewart's Eldora Speedway drivers. After his second full climb of the fence in Loudon, N.H., they ran a discount on ladders and fencing at the stores with a campaign named, "Hey Tony, we've got ladders", where anyone who presented the advertisement in national newspapers in their stores earned the discount. After his victory in Indianapolis, Home Depot presented fans who presented the advertisement of his Allstate 400 win with a discount on purchasing bricks. He mentioned in a press release from his sponsor, "I plan to keep winning races and helping to drive down the cost of home improvement for The Home Depot customers." On November 20, Stewart won his second NASCAR Cup Championship, joining Jeff Gordon as the only active, full-time drivers at the time to have won

multiple championships. It would come at Jimmie Johnson afterward did so from 2006–2010. Also in 2005 Stewart won his first Xfinity series race. Stewart had never ran much in the Xfinity series since he was already an experienced Indy Car driver and pretty much went from Indy Cars into the CUP series. On February 19th he would win the Xfinity race at Daytona driving his Mr Clean Chevy for owner Kevin Harvick. His 2007 racing season started out with Stewart winning his second Chili Bowl Nationals midget car feature. In his first Car of Tomorrow race with the Impala SS, Stewart was dominant at Bristol leading 257 of 504 laps (green-white-checker finish), before he experienced a fuel pump problem. At the third Car of Tomorrow race at Phoenix, Stewart lead a race high 154 laps, but a late race caution moved Stewart to second, where he finished behind Jeff Gordon. In the following week, Stewart implied the cautions were "bogus" and that NASCAR is rigged like professional wrestling. On July 8, 2008, it was reported that Stewart was released from the last year of his contract with Joe Gibbs Racing, Primarily because JGR had switched from Chevrolet to Toyota. Stewart was vocal about his loyalty to Chevrolet (which sponsors his USAC Midget, Sprint Car, and Silver Crown teams), and would move to Haas CNC Racing to drive a Haas Chevrolet, with sponsorship from Office Depot (relocating from the #99 Roush Fenway team) and Old Spice. Stewart took half ownership of the team which was renamed Stewart-Haas Racing, and Stewart became the highest paid NASCAR driver. Stewart's car at Haas has the number 14 as homage to his hero A.J. Foyt. To date, he is the most successful driver for Joe Gibbs Racing with 33 wins and two

championships (2002 and 2005). In 2009, Stewart wheeled the Office Depot car to his first race win as a driver/owner in the non-championship NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race XXV, winning more than $1,000,000, his first win in the event in 10 attempts. He followed that victory with his first points race win as a driver/owner at Pocono in the Pocono 500 on June 7, 2009, the first owner-driver in the Cup series to win a race since Ricky Rudd in 1998. Stewart won two races in 2010, the Emory Healthcare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on September 5 and the Pepsi Max 400 at Auto Club Speedway on October 10. In 2011, Stewart returned in the No. 14 Office Depot Chevrolet. Ryan Newman and his teammate/owner Stewart, started the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 first and second, and they finished it where they started as Newman won that race.

By the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400, Stewart said in a post-race interview that his team was running so poorly that he was "wasting one of those top 12 spots by even being in the Chase". Entering the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup portion of the schedule win-less, Stewart won the opening race of the Chase at the Chicagoland Speedway and jumped up seven spots in the points, securing second place and extending his streak of consecutive years with a win to 13. Stewart made it two for two in the Chase after Clint Bowyer ran out of fuel in the closing laps of the Sylvania 300 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Stewart took the win and the points lead after New Hampshire. At Talladega, Stewart struggled to lead a lap, and eventually did so; with assistance from Ryan Newman, Paul Menard, and Joey Logano, he led an additional 29 laps and captured the two-point bonus for leading the most laps. On October 30, at Martinsville Speedway, Stewart won the Tums Fast Relief 500, leading three times for 14 laps and moving into championship contention in second place in the points standings. The next week, Stewart led 173 laps en route to winning the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, bringing him to within three points of championship points leader Carl Edwards with two races to go in the 2011 season. On November 20, 2011 Stewart won the NASCAR Cup Series championship by winning the final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway while Edwards finished second. Stewart and Edwards were tied on total points, but Stewart claimed the tiebreaker by having five race wins to Edwards's one. In the process, Stewart became the first driver/owner to win the championship since Alan Kulwicki in 1992. Before the season Stewart welcomed two new drivers; retired Indy car

driver Danica Patrick and driver David Reutimann to drive partly for Stewart-Haas Racing as part of a partnership with Tommy Baldwin Racing who provided parts of the cars. Stewart would finish ninth in points, with two top fives and four top tens in the Chase, for a final season total of three wins, 12 top five and 16 top ten finishes overall. In early 2013, reports said that Stewart was offered a chance by Roger Penske to race in the 2013 Indianapolis 500 in a Penske car. Stewart declined and said he was not ready to try the big race again, due to his focus in stock cars. Stewart had a mediocre start to the 2013 season; but would break through and win at Dover in June. Over the next eight races he posted four Top 5 and five Top 10's.

But The day after the Pocono race, on August 5, 2013, while leading a sprint car race at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa, Stewart was involved in a multi-car crash when a lapped car spun in front of him. The hit was hard enough that Stewart broke both the tibia and fibula bones in his lower right leg. He was taken by ambulance to a local hospital where surgery was performed on his broken leg. A second surgery was required on August 8th. The injuries were severe enough that it required Stewart to miss the rest of the season. Mark Martin drove the remaining races is Stewart's car the rest of 2013. Stewart was cleared to race as the season kicked off; but stated he "only felt about 65%". Even so, he posted a fourth place

finish at Bristol, and followed that up the next week with a fifth place finish California. He had two more Top 10 finishes by the time the eighth race on the schedule ended. His season fizzell a bit after that; and any hopes came to a screeching halt after race #21 at Pocono. Stewart decided to stay around the North East area and race a couple sprint car races since the following Cup race would be at Watkins Glen. Stewart was racing when he and driver Kevin Ward bumped into each other and Ward spun out. An angry Ward walked out onto the track in front of Stewart's race car; and Stewart tried to avoid him; but accidentally hit him with his right real wheel. The Ontario County district attorney said Ward had marijuana in his system at the time of the race. A grand jury in Ontario County declined to charge Stewart with either manslaughter in the second

degree and criminally negligent homicide after they convened to hear testimony from more than 20 witnesses and reviewed video footage of the incident. Stewart was so distraught after the incident he sat out the next three Cup events trying to compose himself. He finished last at Homestead ending his 15 year streak of at least one win in a season. 2015 was certainly a down year as he was only able to post two Top 10 finishes; and no Top 5's; failing to score a win for the second year in a row. In September 2015, it was announced that Stewart would retire at the end of the 2016 season. On January 31, 2016 Stewart injured his back while riding a dune buggy outside of San Diego with fellow driver Greg Biffle. Stewart's buggy

flipped and he was trapped. When his friends found him and he was taken to the hospital and it was determined he had suffered a burst fracture in the lumbar vertabra. This would cause him to miss the first eight races of the season; including missing his final Daytona 500 start. He returned to the car at Richmond determined to make the Chase in his final year of competition. Results were lackluster and it appeared that with a large points gap to make up because of missing the first eight races; only way he would make the Chase would be by winning a race. When the road course of Sonoma rolled around Stewart's car appeared to be competitive; but he struggled with traffic. Late in the race Stewart pitted off sequence and shortly

afterwards a yellow flag flew. The team decided not to pit and he found himself in the lead with a hand full of laps remaining. When the final green hankie flew Stewart had to squirt away to as big a lead as possible before the guys who pitted and took on new tires could catch him. Denny Hamlin caught Stewart on the white flag lap and nudged Stewart out of the way at turn seven. Coming down to the final turn Hamlin knew if Stewart got the chance he'd repay the favor. Hamlin spent so much time watching his rear view mirror that he missed the breaking point and left the door open for Stewart to get inside. Stewart pounced and as they came off the last corner Stewart grabbed the lead and the win. You can see in the picture (above) where the two made contact in the last corner; as Stewart tours the

track with his checkered flag. Stewart had made the Chase and had a shot to race for the Championship. However problems in the first three races of elimination forced him to miss being able to advance and he ended up 15th in the season points. The picture below shows the car Stewart drove in his final start. For his career Stewart raced 18 years in the Cup series and ran 618 races. He visited victory lane 49 times, and had 187 top 5 and 308 top 10. He also ran 94 Xfinity races with 11 wins; had six Truck series races and won there twice. Stewart also raced full time in the Indy car series five years before coming to NASCAR. There he won three times and claimed the Championship in 1997 driving for John Menard. Finally; Stewart raced in the IROC : International race Of Champions series five years; winning the title in 2006. Stewart will now put on his car owner hat full time as he will help oversee the operations at Stewart-Haas Racing

and plans to race in many midget; World of Outlaws and sprint car races. As 2017 kicked off Stewart-Hass Racing fielded Cup cars for Clint Bowyer; Kevin Harvick; Danica Patrick and Kurt Busch. I guess I should also point out here that in 2017 Stewart-Haas Racing will be switching from fielding Chevys to Fords. Stewart also races on rare occasions in the World of Outlaws Series and on July 27, 2011, Stewart won his first ever World of Outlaws race at Ohsweken Speedway. Stewart told NASCAR.com of his nickname: "I wasn't very good about not slipping the right-rear tire, initially. So it started as 'Smoker,' then it got shortened to 'Smoke.' Then when I got in the Indy Racing League it was 'Smoke' because one of the guys on the crew who was my roommate, and knew the nickname, carried it over to the Indy Car team. But then when I started blowing engines, 'Smoke' really stuck. I've had it ever since." During his NASCAR career, Stewart once was

told by #20 team owner Joe Gibbs that he could no longer compete in races outside of his Sprint Cup obligations. Stewart worked around this by entering a USAC National Midget race under the pseudonym "Smoke Johnson" with the crowd at the track none the wiser. After winning the feature, "Smoke Johnson" got out of his car and revealed himself to the crowd under his real name. He also once entered himself in a race, driving the infamous "Munchkin" midget chassis, as "Mikey Fedorcak Jr." after buying the Munchkin from Mike Fedorcak during a card game. Stewart owns a dirt late model Chevrolet Impala that carries #14 which he races frequently. Stewart has also won a World of Outlaws Sprint Car Championship as an owner with Donny Schatz in 2008. The team is now a two

car operation with Schatz and Steve Kinser. Stewart was also the driving force behind the Sprint Sponsored "Prelude to the Dream" which features drivers from various sports driving late model dirt cars at Eldora Speedway. Since 2005 the "Dream" has showcased a who's who in NASCAR and NHRA, featuring such drivers as Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Pedregon and others. The inaugural race was won by Kenny Wallace, followed by Carl Edwards in 2006. As of late the race has been nicknamed "The Smoke Show" due to Stewart winning back to back to back since 2007. The events have raised over four million dollars for various NASCAR and driver charities including The Victory Junction Gang Camp. Stewart purchased Eldora Speedway located near Rossburg, Ohio in late 2004 from Earl Baltes. The NASCAR

truck series began running a points paying race there in 2013. It was the first time a NASCAR race has been contested on dirt since 1970. Stewart is currently a co-owner of Paducah International Raceway near Paducah, Kentucky. He also co-owns Macon Speedway in Macon, Illinois along with Kenny Schrader, Kenny Wallace and Bob Sargent. Stewart ran in the Indy 500 five times with a best finish of fifth. Although Stewart co-owns four Cup series teams; and races from time to time; it seems we still wants even "more". In 2021 he and Ray Evernham formed the SRX Races Series. SRX stands for Superstar Racing Experience. SRX cars were completely designed by founder Ray Evernham. The car showed it has a high rear spoiler and is said to have high horsepower and low downforce. SRX draws direct contrast from NASCAR when aiming for shorter races at shorter tracks, and also with the random pairing of driver and crew chief for each race. The series' lineup is made up of younger up and coming drivers looking for exposure, in addition to the older and retired drivers. In addition to those running the full schedule, the series provides a "Rocky Balboa" car for a local champion at each track and a "ringer" entry for notable

drivers making cameo appearances. As of 2023 the Series will be entering it's third year and will be aired on ESPN on Thursday nights; a throw back to when ESPN aired "Thursday Night Thunder". Stewart branched out even further in 2021. Along with co-owning a NASCAR team with Haas; Tony took over an NHRA drag racing team. Tony Stewart went into NHRA Racing in grand scale. He fielded a car for his new wife Leah Pruitt, in Top Fuel Dragsters; while in Funny Car he had the experience of driver Matt Hagan. Pruett is currently in her 25th

consecutive season competing in NHRA, which began in the series’ Jr. Drag Racing League as an 8-year-old. She won the 2010 NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series championship in the Nostalgia Funny Car class and has spent the last eight years advancing her way through Top Fuel. Hagan is the three-time Funny Car champion (2011, 2014 and 2020). Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) made its NHRA debut during the 2022 season opener Feb. 17-20 at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. Although Stewart was new to drag racing; he wasn't new to motorsports. He had good infrastructure in place and was used to building things from the ground up. TSR saw Matt Hagan get the first win for the team. Hagan raced to his first career win at the historic Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway in March. In the final round, Hagan powered his Dodge Charger Hellcat SRT to a run of 3.910-seconds at 330.96 mph to beat Blake Alexander for his 40th career victory. Meanwhile, in July, Leah Pruett powered past Shawn Langdon in the final of the NHRA Mile High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway to get Stewart's first Top Fuel win. Pruett had a 3.884-second run at 316.38 mph in the final Sunday for her 10th career victory. For the season Hagan would win again at Houston in the Spring Nationals; in New Hampshire at the New England Nationals and the Nevada Nationals at Las Vegas. It didn't take long for Tony to get the itch to get behind the wheel of a dragster. He climbed into a Top Alcohol dragster in 2022 and his first pass was an impressive 276 mph. Stewart qualified second in his first ever event, held at Las Vegas. He won his first two rounds of eliminations on Saturday; and on Sunday in the semi-finals he went up against Chris Demke and got the win there. That pitted him against Madison Payne. She is from a drag racing family. She is the daughter of former Top Fuel NHRA driver Shelley Anderson-Payne who has four wins in the Top Fuel category. Brad Anderson is Madison's grandfather; and Jay Pane is her father; while Randy Anderson is her uncle. Truely some stout NHRA roots. Madison beat Stewart in the final round by a razor thin .0002 seconds as she claimed her first "Wally". It was an impressive debut for the 52 year old Stewart. Some info from Wikipedia

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

ANTHONY WAYNE "TONY" STEWART - 05/20/1971