Tony Stewart: Progressive Rock - Speedway Digest

Tony Stewart is a fan of progressive rock, be it of the powerhouse band “Kansas” that was formed in the early 1970s in Topeka, to the rock that was recently unearthed at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., to make way for progressive banking.

Stewart, whose iPod is as eclectic as his racing resume, has earned 47 career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins, and they’ve come at every type of track on the NASCAR schedule. Intermediate tracks. Short tracks. High-banked tracks. Flat tracks. Superspeedways. Road courses. Name it and Stewart has won on it, including the two tracks that have most recently incorporated progressive banking – Homestead-Miami Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In fact, Stewart is the most recent Sprint Cup race winner at those two venues, as the driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing won last year’s season finale at Homestead and this year’s visit to Las Vegas.

Now Kansas joins the mix of progressively-banked tracks, with the 1.5-mile oval jettisoning its constant, 15 degrees of banking in its turns to progressive banking of 17 to 20 degrees. A new coat of asphalt covers the reconfigured surface, and Stewart and the rest of his Sprint Cup counterparts get two days of testing at the new Kansas before qualifying on Friday for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400.

Stewart’s history at Kansas is impressive, but it’s also irrelevant. His two wins (2006 and 2009), five top-fives, eight top-10s and 152 laps led in 13 previous Sprint Cup starts were on a surface that no longer exists. It is a new ballgame, much like it was in back-to-back weekends in June when the Sprint Cup Series visited Pocono (Pa.) Raceway and Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn. Both tracks undertook massive repaving projects during the offseason, and in June drivers saw the new-age tracks for the first time. Stewart adapted quickly, finishing third at Pocono and second at Michigan.

Can further improvement at the third newly-paved track this season net Stewart his fourth win of 2012 and the 48^th of his career? Stewart’s pedigree says yes, as the four-time USAC champion honed his skills on dirt, where tracks change drastically from the drop of the green flag to the end of a 30-lap feature. One’s ability to adapt is paramount to one’s success, and Stewart showed that not only in the mid-1990s when he dominated USAC, but as recently as this spring and summer when he won nine Sprint Car races, including two in the ultra-competitive World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series – July 17 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa., and July 31 at Ohsweken Speedway in Ontario, Canada.

While Kansas’ revised layout and fresh pavement are a far cry from the dirt tracks Stewart has barnstormed, its surface will change from a blank slate to one that has a character all its own, from Friday through Sunday and, especially, throughout the 267 laps in the Hollywood Casino 400.

Kansas may indeed be the great unknown for many of the 43 drivers who will start Sunday’s race, but for Stewart, that unknown is an advantage. His ability to adapt and wheel his Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy on a line that covers the 1.5-mile oval quicker than his counterparts is something Stewart has already proven at Homestead and Las Vegas. For him, it’s a great opportunity to score another win and reenergize his standing in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

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