If there ever was a track that demanded versatility, it’s Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The venerable facility has challenged auto racing’s greatest drivers for more than 100 years, and its long list of winners boasts a who’s who of racing’s elite.
Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, is among the elite. The three-time and reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion has made a total of 21 starts at Indianapolis – 13 in the Brickyard 400, five in the Indianapolis 500 and three in the defunct IROC Series. Along the way, he’s collected two Brickyard 400 wins (2005 and 2007), a Brickyard 400 pole (2002), an Indianapolis 500 pole (1996) and led a total of 357 laps (227 laps in Sprint Cup, 122 laps in IndyCar and eight laps in IROC).
All of these accomplishments have been hard-earned for the Columbus, Ind., native.
As an up-and-coming USAC driver who wheeled a tow truck to make ends meet, Stewart would often wonder as he drove down Georgetown Road toward 16th Street, parallel to Indy’s 3,330-foot-long frontstretch, what it would be like to be 300 feet to the left running at 200 mph.
Stewart finally earned that opportunity in 1996 thanks to winning the USAC “Triple Crown” in 1995, where he did what no one had ever done before – win the Sprint, Midget and Silver Crown championships in a single season.
Stewart was an Indianapolis 500 rookie who qualified second and then started on the pole after his teammate, Scott Brayton, was killed in one of the practice sessions leading up to the race. A 25-year-old Stewart shook off the nerves that would’ve pulsed through the veins of even the most grizzled racing veteran to lead the first 32 laps. Stewart was on his way to validating the Indy Racing League, which sought to promote American drivers who honed their skills on the dirt and pavement bullrings of open-wheel racing’s feeder divisions, until a faulty pop-off valve eventually ended his day on lap 82.
More heartbreak came in the 1998 Indy 500 when Stewart’s engine grenaded after passing Greg Ray for the lead on lap 21.
Stewart’s initial NASCAR tenure at Indy wasn’t much kinder.
In the 2001 Brickyard 400, Stewart was a threat to win for all but the last 23 laps. There, he glanced off the turn two wall as he raced with Dale Jarrett toward the lead. “I was just trying too hard,” admitted Stewart. In 2002, he scored the pole with a new track record and led four times for 43 laps before finishing a disappointing 12th. And in 2003 victory was again in Stewart’s sights as he led three times for 60 laps around the 2.5-mile oval, but a slow final pit stop and an ill-timed caution late in the race combined to give Stewart another 12th-place result.
Ten years after getting his wish just to compete at Indy, Stewart fulfilled his ultimate dream when he won the 2005 Brickyard 400 – a victory that propelled him to his second Sprint Cup championship, bookending the first title he earned in 2002. Finally getting that first win seemed to make returning to Indy as the favorite son somewhat easier, for after standing inside the speedway’s victory circle in 2005, it only took a year and 209 days for Stewart to score his second Indy triumph when he led seven times for a race-high 65 laps en route to a dominating win in the 2007 Brickyard 400.
As Stewart returns to Indy for his 22nd start and 14th in the Brickyard 400, he does so in perhaps the best position he’s ever been in at this point in any of his 13 previous Sprint Cup seasons.
With three wins already this year, Stewart holds the No. 1 seed in the Chase for the Sprint Cup – the 12-driver, 10-race dash for the championship which begins in just seven races on Sept. 16 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. Another win would provide Stewart even more cushion to secure the No. 1 seed, and more importantly, give him three more bonus points to add to the nine he’s already collected to begin the Chase.
Winning is something Stewart has done a lot this year, and not just in Sprint Cup. Stewart’s versatility has shown outside of NASCAR’s elite division, as he’s been winning since before the NASCAR season even started.
In February, Stewart won an All-Star Circuit of Champions 410 Winged Sprint Car race at Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Ga. In April, he won an American Sprint Car Series Midwest Region 360 Winged Sprint Car race at Eagle Raceway in Bennington, Neb. Later that month, Stewart won the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown – a 75-lap charity Late Model stock-car race – at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. And just last week, Stewart won his second career World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series A-Feature at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa.
It’s that kind of versatility that drives Stewart, and it’s that kind of versatility that proves to be victorious at Indy.
On top of all that, Stewart has another weapon in his arsenal – Mobil 1, the world’s leading synthetic motor oil blend. Mobil 1’s engine oil, chassis lubricants, gear oil – even its power steering fluid – give Stewart an edge by reducing friction, heat and rolling resistance. And in the middle of the summer on a hot, scorching racetrack, it’s an edge that could very well put Stewart back into Indy’s victory circle and high atop the Chase standings come Round 1 at Chicagoland.
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