Curt Cavin

curt.cavin@indystar.com

Tony Stewart has won season driving championships in USAC, IndyCar and NASCAR, which doesn’t leave much to pursue in U.S. auto racing. 

Or does it? 

As the most complete Indiana-born driver in history approaches a transition in his career – Stewart is retiring from stock car racing at season’s end – his father said another challenge awaits. 

“He wants to win a (World of) Outlaws championship,” Nelson Stewart told IndyStar this week. 

Wait.  Stop the car.  Find reverse.  Back up. 

What?! 

“Yeah, he wants to be an Outlaws champion,” Nelson said. “ It’s going to take a lot of work because he hasn’t even been in (a winged sprint car) in what, three years?  But that’s what he’d like to do.” 

If that’s Stewart’s plan – and the winner of three career Outlaw races hasn’t confirmed it – he would be a series part-timer next year with an eye on a title run perhaps as soon as 2018. 

When Stewart announced his retirement from NASCAR last fall, he said he wanted to return to his dirt-track roots, and the Outlaws series is certainly that.  Stewart owns a bevy of sprint cars; Tony Stewart Racing runs them out of a Brownsburg shop.  But running for a season championship would require a significant commitment; the series website shows 94 nights of racing this season. 

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Stewart’s plans must be considered fluid because he hasn’t yet stepped away from NASCAR.  He's committed to 18 more stock car races, including next weekend’s return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, then the fun he's been looking forward to begins. 

Stewart told IndyStar last week that there are only a few for-sures on his current to-do list: running a sprint car at the Knoxville (Iowa) Nationals; using one of his midgets to return to Tulsa, Okla., for the Chili Bowl Nationals, a race he’s twice won; and an assortment of late model dirt races. 

Stewart wants to broaden his racing horizons, too, starting with a play day with the Haas F1 team owned by Gene Haas, Stewart’s partner in Stewart-Haas Racing.  Stewart said he has “a light, semi-offer” to compete in next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans sports-car race, which intrigues him. 

He also mentioned participating in the Goodwood Festival of Speed, an English event of historic cars held each summer.  Fellow NASCAR driver Mike Skinner, who has been to the showcase, said Stewart needs to introduce Goodwood to a sprint car, and of course, Stewart has never been one to avoid ruffling the establishment. 

“Pull wheelies,” Stewart said, laughing with a hint of seriousness. “ Thing is, those cars don’t turn corners worth a damn, so I’ll have to put two right-rear tires on it.  We’ll have to do some testing to see if you can actually steer it.” 

Stewart has seemingly raced everywhere across the Midwest and through much of New York and Pennsylvania – he’s won races in 28 states and three countries – but there is still more to see, more to do, more tracks to conquer and enjoy. 

One he mentioned is up the road at Gas City (Ind.) Speedway, where Stewart has only watched races. 

Don’t think for a moment that life after NASCAR is just a passing thought for Stewart; he gives it nearly 24/7 imagination.  With the millions he’s earned as a stock car driver, his planning isn’t constrained by money.  Long gone are the days when his father said it cost “$500 every time we backed out of the driveway” for a race. 

In classic Stewart form, he detailed to IndyStar a 1984 GMC box truck that’s ready to roll whenever the urge to race locally hits. 

“They made a custom grill for it, redid the whole inside,” he said, proudly. “ It’s got a lounge in the first third of the box, two couches ... it’s got a bar and we’ll have tequila and shot glasses. 

“In the back, I’m not sure where we got the locker, but it’s awesome – a legit single locker that I can put my helmet and gear in.  There’s a big work bench and storage areas.” 

Stewart also has an open trailer that he bought in Milwaukee, and that comes with a story, too.  Stewart came across it for sale on eBay, and he admits being consumed by the Internet auction for it while on stage during a driver appearance. 

“I was doing a Q&A with (broadcaster) Matt Yocum, sitting up there looking at my phone,” he said. “ I’m looking to see if I won the auction. 

“Triple tire rack, real bad-ass.  That will be our Brownstown rig.” 

Brownstown Speedway is a quarter-mile dirt track 30 miles straight south of Stewart’s home in Columbus.  It stages late model races on Saturday nights. 

Stewart also plans to build a TQ midget that might race once or twice a year. 

“Everything else is going to have to be pickup rides,” he said. “ But offers are coming in because people know we want to go race.” 

* * *

Stewart turned 45 in May; his father is 78.  Those are important numbers in establishing a potential timeline for the rest of Stewart’s career, which he calls “the next chapter in my life.” 

See, Nelson isn’t done racing, either.  With a Legends car, he competed in 48 races in 10 states last year.  He has scaled back some this year, but the man’s a gasser, too. 

“Tony won’t race as long as I have, but he’s been at it longer, too,” Nelson said. “ Hell, he’s been racing for 37 years!” 

Nelson was 19 when he ran his first race.  His longest continuous driving stint was three years in the Sports Car Club of America, a predominantly amateur series, before he gave up driving to help his 7-year-old son get his racing career rolling.  Nelson never lost the bug, however, despite working around a wife, two children and a job selling laboratory equipment for hospitals and physician's offices. 

Tony’s first race of any kind was at a go-kart track in Westport, Ind., a 20-mile drive east of their Columbus home.  Nelson remembers the light poles in the track’s corners, but it wasn’t much of a venue.  He took Tony there once, garnering a fourth-place finish. 

Father and son were on the go from there, with trips to seemingly every track where a youngster could get four wheels moving.  One such track required senior-class drivers and their karts to weigh a combined 350 pounds.  Nelson remembers Tony being 12 at the time, and the numbers didn’t add up. 

“He couldn’t have weighed an ounce over 85 pounds, and the kart weighed 125 pounds,” Nelson said. “ We had to put so much lead weight on that if that thing had gotten upside down, it would have crushed him.” 

After Tony won, officials weighed them twice.  As soon as the Stewarts seemed in the clear, they hurried out with the $125 prize. 

On the way home from a race, Nelson remembers driving past another track.  It was dirt and the tires on the car were for asphalt racing. 

“We took their money (by winning) on slicks and got the hell out of there,” he said. 

Earlier this week, Nelson went through the National Speedway Directory to see how many Indiana tracks his son has raced.  The estimate came in at 28.  Nelson counted his own tracks, too, totaling 23. 

Like father, like son, right? 

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“I can remember taking go-karts into motel rooms at night and working on them,” Nelson said of the family’s effort to prepare Tony for stardom. “ We were just like every other guy out there. 

“We went up to New York one time and won on a Saturday, then drove all the way back to Muncie for a Sunday afternoon race.  Won that one, too, We did a lot of stupid things back then.” 

All of this supports the drive Tony will have long after he shuts off the No.  14 stock car for the final time Nov. 20 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.  The racing fun is set to continue for years to come. 

“I literally look at it like it’s halftime of a ballgame,” Tony said. “ This is what the first half was and the direction it took, and this is the second half and it’s a totally different direction and a totally different approach. 

“I think the second half of my life is going to be even more exciting than the first half was.” 

Follow IndyStar reporter Curt Cavin on Facebook and Twitter: @curtcavin.