Tony Stewart on returning to IndyCar Series: “never say never”
Quote selected text Published May 8th, 2008 in NASCAR News
The topic of a possible return to the Indianapolis 500 is never far away when five-time Indy starter Tony Stewart returns to IMS. Two-time Allstate 400 at the Brickyard winner Stewart visited IMS today to help Chevrolet unveil the new Midget engine that will power Tony Stewart Racing driers Tracy Hines and Levi Jones in USAC events, and he also discussed “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
TONY STEWART: “There’s part of me that thinks running at Indy and in IndyCar is a chapter of my life that is closed, and then there is the emotional part of me that says, ‘Never say never.’ I don’t know if I will ever get in an Indy car again, but if that happens, it’s obviously going to be a long way down the road because I have a lot of commitments on the NASCAR side.
If I was going to come to Indianapolis again, I don’t want to come and show up and run the month of May. If I am going to do it, I need to start at Homestead, and I need to run all the races leading up to the month of May to really feel like I am being fair to the team and being fair to myself, and have enough time in the car to where when we show up in the month of May, we are ready to go. Where I am comfortable in the car, I’m comfortable with the people I am working with and feel like I am in tune and up to speed with the technology of the setups and what is going on. As long as I am driving a stock car, that basically takes that part of it out of the equation.
I’m not going to be one of these guys who just shows up and runs the Indy 500. I’ve ran the Indy 500; I want to win the Indy 500. I honestly don’t believe in the era of the driver that you can just come in on a one-off race and do that. It’s virtually impossible. You can’t come in and expect as good as the guys doing it every week.” (About the unification of open-wheel racing under the IndyCar Series banner): “I’m really excited to see everybody back. What’s the car count this year so far? Thirty nine? That might actually make it fun and exciting to come here on Bump Day. That’s going to be cool. I think you’re going to see one of the most competitive fields ever at Indy this year.”
- Stewart not likely to race Indy 500 again
- Camara Tests IndyCar for Andretti Green
- Stewart and Hamlin about to get contract extensions
- Armor All to sponsor Stewart’s Nationwide car at Daytona
- Stewart to test at Daytona
In this sport you Never say Never to anything.
But I don’t see Smoke loosing 100 pounds any time soon so I think its pretty safe to save Never for this one…. l0l
Fisha695 wrote:
My thoughts exactly! Tony’s my boy and all, but good luck getting his tubby butt wedged into one of those Indy Cars!
What if that is really what he wants to do? Tony is so competitive that I think he can do it. (loose weight) That said, I also think he wants another nascar championship and he has the talent.
Get a big old shoehorn and some Crisco. That’ll get him in the cockpit.
Fisha695 wrote:
Why not he has been on his rowing machine everyday and its starting to show
Adn he lost all that weight last year and he didn’t keep it off, plus with the minimum weight rule they now have in the IRL to not be at a disadvantage you have to weigh like 101 l0l
wait… chevy built a midget engine for his team? that fair?
Ripper wrote:
All of his Dirt cars are now Chevy’s, they were Mopar Powered until a year or two ago.
What do you mean is ‘that fair?’
Of course it’s fair…. it’s TONY’S PERSONAL team. That’s why at the Team Chevy display at the races, there’s a poster of Tony with a caption reading; “The teams I own are sponsored by Chevy.”
TSR has nothing to do with JGR. They race two different series, therefore there is not a conflict of interest.
By the way… I’m really disappointed with how many people constantly discuss Tony’s weight. Didn’t your Mom ever teach you better than that? Besides, I stood next to him for a little while at TMS in April and he is not nearly as big in person as he appears to be on camera. Not that it matters to anyone who finds pointing out what are perceived flaws in others to feel better about themselves.
your right he is not that big i just looked at the shots of him from last weekend i took at the ROCK and he isnt that big. jeez you make him out to be Jimmy Spenser who had problems just getting though the window of the car.
I think Smoke has the same problem that I have and that is we look big in the face, and that makes us look bigger overall.
right, the camera adds 15 lbs!
it’s just that he has about 5 or 6 cameras on him at any given time!