Photo Credit: Sal Sigala Jr.
“Was this fun?” “Yeah, it was great.”
Following a victory on Sunday at Sonoma Raceway, it seems Tony Stewart is back to having fun once again.
Stewart expressed on Friday at the Sonoma’s Wall of Fame Induction he wasn’t having fun right now driving Sprint Cup Series cars – hence why he’s retiring at year’s end.
“I’m ready to go run stuff that makes me happy and driving a Sprint Cup car does not make me happy right now,” he said on Friday. “… A lot of things have changed. The atmosphere has changed. There is so much stuff in the garage area that has changed that it was time for me to make a change with it.”
“I will say this, I can’t wait for Tuesday because I told Mike Helton I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time to see how much you get fined for a fight. He laughed at me. I said, well, look at it this way, I’ve got a lot of scores to settle with people and I’ve only got six months to do it. I’ve just got to figure out if it’s economically feasible to do it, so I’m waiting to see what — I’ll be the one by 5:00 on Tuesday reading every social media thing out there. But I’m going to go to Zaxby’s and eat chicken all week just in support of John Wes. Hey, I’m all for it. I’m glad to see somebody had some emotion and actually did something with it. I’m going to live my life through him for this week.”
2. Tony Stewart on Clint Bowyer, who will be driving the No. 14 next season
“What was Bowyer’s deal? Glad he got out of that. It would be really hard to listen to him next year. He’s hard enough to hear on the radio as it is because he’s ADD anyway. It takes five people, and it’s like, every breath somebody picks a different part of the sentence to understand. It’s like a game show. It’s like Clint Bowyer for 600, please.”
3. Tony Stewart on what the victory means to him and his team
“I’m excited for Mike to get his first win and proud that I could get him a win before the end of the year. Excited for this team. My guys have been through this whole disastrous roller coaster the last three or four years and never backed down. They’ve never quit on me. There’s days I’ve quit on myself and they’re the guys that send you text messages and call you when you get home like hey, this isn’t over. I’m proud for them, and it meant more for me to get it for them than for myself.”
4. Tony Stewart on whether he’s having fun
“Today. Check with me. Most likely when Daytona starts on Friday, not so much. We all know how I feel about restrictor plate racing.”
