• Darlington, Mar 21, Stewart ran over Andy Hillenburg. To Hillenburg’s credit he humbly apologized for not being fast enough not to be run over. Later, Stewart expressed his displeasure with Casey Kahne for another incident on the track.
• Bristol, Mar 28, Stewart hit the side of Scott Wimmer’s car for no apparent reason. Maybe just because he’s a rookie?
• Martinsville, Apr 18, Stewart gets into Ryan Newman and later Newman’s teammate, Rusty Wallace more than once.
• Talledega, Apr 25, Stewart actually starts the “big one”, multiple cars crashed that sent Kurt Busch spinning out. Then after the checkers fly, Stewart plows into Terry Labonte while making a rash reverse turn away from debris on the track.
• California, May 2, Stewart gets into both Jeff Gordon and Rusty Wallace, both saying something to the effect that they don’t understand what his (Stewart’s) problem is. Later in the race, Stewart is lifting Rudd’s rearend off the track, however, Rudd claims he asked for it by his hand gestures to give him a shove. Last I learned, there’s no advantage to having your rear lifted off the track and Rudd didn’t appear to benefit by any of the contact.
• Richmond, May 15, and Jeff Gordon’s complaining about Stewart however, it does look like this was simply a racing deal and Tony managed to stay off and out of anyone else throughout the evening.
Sure, other drivers’ are getting into other driver’s too but it doesn’t seem to be the SAME drivers having the SAME problems over a two month period. The announcers, and particularly Darrell Waltrip’s assessment that Tony is the “common denominator” sounds fairly accurate. Supposedly a meeting took place between Tony and NASCAR. From the results since then, I’m inclined to think they told him they need a bad boy out there and they will let him get away with it since it’s good for promoting the sport.
Personally, I find Tony’s pre-race statements at Richmond appalling. Tony has a job with Joe Gibbs racing to drive a Home Depot sponsored car. Darrell Waltrip has a job with Fox Sports to call the races as he sees it with colorful comments added to flavor the coverage. Both are doing their jobs. Both are good at what they do. I find Tony’s post race comments even more pathetic after driving 400 laps and placing in the top 5 because all he can think to talk about afterwards is another childish attack on Waltrip. Tony trampled a line in Richmond that up to this point was in tact with respect to the veterans and past champions. Just like a spoiled little kid, Tony made a mess and he’s not cleaning it up. Darrell Waltrip is. Waltrip has let it go and refuses to focus on “ugliness” from a fellow driver. Waltrip has displayed great class and even thrown a little humor on the sour event during the usual Fox antics for the Allstar weekend.
Darrell Waltrip has a place in history with 3 championships and 84 victories that neither Tony nor many others will be lucky to attain in their careers. Every time things get hot for Tony he goes back to racing Sprints and making comments like he did last week, ‘…If you can’t touch anybody and you’ve got to worry about it every race, I might as well quit this sport and go back to running sprint cars, where there’s none of this stuff. [Editorial note: There isn’t any of that stuff in sprints because the results are disastrous in open wheel racing.] At least you’re allowed to race there. You don’t have to worry about people hacking you in the media every time you touch somebody.’ To that I say: Tony, please go ahead and quit since that’s your solution to all your problems in NASCAR. If that’s how you feel, quit making threats and do it. The field will be better off without you around to run over or run into them and whine afterwards because someone is calling you on your lousy behavior on the track.
And if Tony’s attitude is to be the norm today, then lookout Richard Petty! Someone just might mouth off that you cheated your way into 200 victories and those 7 championships. Would that be accurate? Possibly, as “cheating” was the norm and part of the game back in Richard’s days of racing. Would that be fair or kind to label the King like that? Of course not. Why, you ask? Because of respect for the veterans, the roots and history of the sport and every single driver to race BEFORE Tony came to this division who paved the way for him to race like he does today and make more money than they ever remotely dreamed of in this sport! If Tony doesn’t want to be called the “common denominator” then stop being one. If Tony wants to drive aggressively, then live with the criticism. Greater drivers than Stewart will ever be have driven more aggressively and lived with their reputations without resorting to personal, cutting remarks against a detractor.
For all you dads and moms who support Tony’s disrespectful personal attack on Darrell Waltrip, remember Tony when your own child mouth’s off at you with the same condescending disrespect. If you think Tony’s cool, Tony’s great, Tony’s the best for telling DW off like he did, be prepared to accept the same from your children. They take notes from what we parents find “ok” and they’ll use it later when you least expect it. So when you’re befuddled that your child isn't respecting you like they used to, or they’ve adopted a devil-may-care-attitude, remember how you cheered Tony for taking DW down a notch on a very personal and cutting attack that had nothing to do with the issues. Spiritedness is a wonderful gift when disciplined and kept under control. Anything else is just a nightmare that most likely will continue to get worse.
