Tony Stewart hopes to move forward on track, in life
Tony Stewart only wishes his worst problem was improving on what might prove to be his worst season on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
The context of the word recovery for Stewart, of course, goes far beyond the realm of the racing oval.
A year ago this Sunday, Stewart was involved in a sprint-car accident in New York that claimed the life of 20-year-old driver Kevin Ward, who was struck by Stewart’s car when he got out of his car on the track to confront the three-time Sprint Cup champion.
A criminal investigation cleared Stewart of any wrongdoing, but that wasn’t the end of his ordeal or trauma.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be the same by what happened,” Stewart said Wednesday at Texas Motor Speedway. “I don’t know how you could be like you were.”
Stewart was in town as instructor of the Tony Stewart Smoke Show, an all-day fantasy driving camp for fans. The event functions also as a fundraiser for the Speedway Children’s Charities, which has received more than $1 million from proceeds from the camp.
“I think there’s always positives that come out of” adversity, Stewart said.
He’s looking for positives from on-track troubles that began before the accident.
Stewart won only once in 2013 after missing the final 15 races with a shattered leg — suffered on a sprint-car race in Iowa — that cost him the final 15 races. A winless season in 2014 followed.
He enters this week’s race at Watkins Glen 25th after 21 races and at risk of missing the Chase for the Sprint Cup a third consecutive season.
While he tries to distance himself from the immediate past, what gives Stewart hope he can rebound is the past.
In 2011, Stewart went winless through the middle of September, but he caught fire and won five of the season’s last 10 races on the way to the series title. That experience, he cautioned, is no guarantee of a repeat in 2015, but “you have that in the back of your mind that you have done it before and can be done.”
Furthermore, Smoke appears as if he might be turning a corner. Of his two top 10s this season, one was last week at Pocono. The week before that he ran the fifth-fastest lap in practice.
All of that makes some believe that Stewart is growing more comfortable with the new car packages and rules that he said has plagued him.
“It’s been a decent couple of weeks,” Stewart said. “I think it’s a little early to put judgment on whether we got it figured out, but at least we qualified well the last couple of weeks.
“That’s been a bonus, definitely.”
Some wonder, however, if the death of Ward is not taking a toll emotionally on Stewart, who has a reputation as a mentally strong competitor.
While he and Danica Patrick struggle under the umbrella of his Stewart-Haas Racing, teammates and employees Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch don’t seem to be having any trouble with the new rules.
The tragedy last year is a subject the articulate Stewart admitted he doesn’t like to address.
“I’m trying not to think about it,” said Stewart, who freely answered questions about it. “You guys are the first ones to bring it up. Unfortunately, it’s probably going to be brought up a lot this week.
“Doesn’t help you move forward with it.”
This story was originally published August 5, 2015 at 8:52 PM with the headline "Tony Stewart hopes to move forward on track, in life."