One race remains for Tony Stewart as NASCAR driver

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Not only was David Ragan dealing with the choking pressure of replacing Mark Martin at Roush Fenway Racing in 2006, he landed on the wrong side of Tony Stewart’s emotional pendulum at Martinsville Speedway.

It was Ragan’s second Sprint Cup Series start and things did not go smoothly. He held up traffic. He veered from the inside lane to the outside, often without warning or reason. He dented a lot of fenders – and nerves.

After the race, Stewart called him a “dart without feathers.”

Ragan was so concerned by a bad reputation so early in his career, he paid $1,000 at Atlanta Motor Speedway to win a ride-along with Stewart before the race. Drivers in the Coca-Cola family were auctioned for a pre-race ride. For Ragan, it was worth $1,000 to apologize.

Ragan introduced himself as both stood in the bed of a pickup truck while circling the track.

“He told me I should have saved a thousand bucks and just walked up to him,” Ragan said. “It was the first time I ever met Tony. I was so nervous.”

Ten years later, Stewart and Ragan are on good terms. They sometimes talk about racing and life, Ragan said, and it’s been fun for both to reflect on their relationship as Stewart’s storied career comes to an end with Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“I consider Tony a friend,” Ragan said.

Now that Stewart has one final race before retiring as a NASCAR driver, others have marked the occasion by giving their helmets to Stewart as tribute.

Ragan gave his helmet with the following inscription:

“I’m still looking for my feathers. Thanks, David.”

Where there’s Smoke, there’s fire

Not since A.J. Foyt has there been a driver with such diverse skills and temperament. Whether it be a go-kart, IndyCar, stock car or pushing a shopping cart through a parking lot, Stewart only knows one speed – all out.

He’s the only driver to ever win an IndyCar and NASCAR championship. He’s also a Sprint Car champion, but Stewart is most at peace at a dusty dirt track where legends are measured by the scars on their knuckles and the type of beer in their coolers.

A driver with a short-track mentality clearly has struggled to fit into the Madison Avenue demands of NASCAR. For the most part, Stewart has gotten by. But sometimes he goes off the deep end.

It’s those compelling swings of mood, mixed with an imposing level of success, that makes Stewart so popular and polarizing – often at the same time.

“I think there are always points in everybody’s life you wish you had done something a little bit different,” Stewart said. “I’ve had a lot of those moments for sure that if I could go back and redo it I would love to do it over again. I think how everything shook out at the end I’m pretty proud of that and happy about it.”

Few drivers have escaped Stewart’s ire, but all have sincere respect for him. They admire his racing tenacity and the way he speaks his mind, including touching one of NASCAR’s biggest nerves by once comparing the sport to professional wrestling.

“I’ve been on the really, really bad side of Tony, and I’ve been on the really, really good side of Tony,” Kyle Busch said, “and it’s obviously way better to be on the better side.”

Jimmie Johnson, who Sunday has a chance to tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt with seven series championships, fondly remembered how he and Stewart tangled at the Daytona 500 in 2005. Stewart reportedly had to be restrained by officials after both were ordered to the NASCAR hauler after the race.

A year later they shared a ride to the Daytona International Speedway for the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Stewart had a greyhound aboard his private jet, and he fed it strips of steak.

He then reached into a bag and tossed Johnson a hamburger.

“Easy. I like my dog,” Stewart said. “I like my dog more than I like people, so my dog gets better meals.”

Now with just 400 miles remaining in his NASCAR career, Stewart still isn’t offering many apologies. More lasting, he’s more concerned with how he perceives himself, not how others view him.

Stewart versus the media

There are things Stewart won’t miss in retirement – early-morning practice sessions and the media.

For the most part, he’s had a cordial, sometimes playful, relationship with the working press. The media also has been one of his biggest targets.

In 2001, he slapped a tape recorder from a reporter’s hand and kicked it under a hauler at Daytona. NASCAR fined him $10,000 and his sponsor, The Home Depot, order him into anger management classes.

A year later as Stewart was on the cusp of his first of three championships, he pushed through a crowd of photographers at Homestead to get into his hauler. In the process, he used his forearm to strike Rusty Jarrett, a longtime photographer for Getty Images who specializes in NASCAR and the Masters Tournament.

NASCAR ordered both to its hauler.

“That was the first time I met Tony, in the hauler” Jarrett said Friday at Homestead. “I didn’t have a problem with it. I was more upset NASCAR and everyone else made a big deal out of it.”

The two now are good friends, often jetting away during a NASCAR weekend to spend a couple hours to watch a short-track race.

“It’s been a fun 18 years. Not every part of it has been fun and I’ve made your guys life (in the media) hell at certain points during my 18-year run here,” Stewart said. “But the thing that I think at the end of it I’ve always said what was on my mind whether it was popular or unpopular.”

Always a Racer

The road to retirement certainly has been filled with a lot of pain. Stewart broke his leg in a 2013 Sprint Car race. A year later his Sprint Car struck another driver who ran onto the track to confront Stewart. And just before his final year, he missed nine races after he suffered a broken vertebra while driving a dune buggy in the desert.

No criminal charges were filed in the fatal accident, but Stewart still faces a lawsuit filed in civil court by the victim’s family.

Through it all, Stewart’s legion of fans has never wavered in their support because always has been, and always will be, the epitome of a racer. Earlier this week, the employees at Stewart-Hass Racing presented him with the car he will drive in his final race. It was signed by every one of them.

The car has photos of the driver following all three championships, as well as the words “Always A Racer.”

The No. 14 Chevrolet will start 11th Sunday.

Stewart still will be around the track as a car owner in the future, but he also plans to spend a lot of his time back on the same dirt tracks that years ago that fueled his passion for racing.

Those closest to him have never seen him so content as he prepares to take his life into new directions.

“I don’t think that everybody can really put into perspective everything that he touches from the racing world and keeps going and the effort that he puts into it and how much he actually loves doing what he does,” said Kevin Harvick, who won a championship for Stewart-Haas in 2014.

“He may be retiring, but he’s got more going on in the racing world than you can imagine, so I’m just happy that he’s happy.”