Tony Stewart In The Middle Of A Mess... Again
Dateline: 08/14/2000This weekend Tony Stewart once again found himself squarely in the center of a controversy as a result of poor judgement on the racetrack. Tony can now add Jeff Gordon's name to the list of drivers who he will probably not get a Christmas card from.
Rain washed out qualifying this weekend at Watkins Glen and the starting field was determined based on the current car owner points. This put some of the better road racing stars farther back in the pack than they might have been and set up some great racing throughout the day as the better drivers were forced to pick their way through to the front.
On lap two Jeff Gordon was moving past Tony Stewart when Tony drove too deep into turn three, slid up and took Gordon into the wall. This contact effectively ended Gordon's chance to extend his road racing streak to seven consecutive road course wins.
After the race Gordon stopped by Tony's trailer to let him know how he felt about Stewart racing him hard that early in the race. There was a brief verbal battle but no physical exchange between the two drivers. This is just another in a long series of controversies that Tony seems to find himself in the middle of on a regular basis.
With only one and a half Winston Cup seasons under his belt Tony already has piled up more than his share of enemies.
Remember Daytona earlier this year when Tony intentionally spun Robby Gordon down the backstretch? Maybe Robby did come down on him but Robby is inexperienced (in stock cars) and is bound to make mistakes. Tony could have easily cracked the throttle and let him get in line safely, after all it was only a practice session. Instead Tony ran him like it was the white flag lap and spun Robby out. This lead to a heated exchange in the garage area that included some pushing and shoving.
Or how about last October in Martinsville when Tony Stewart got into a scuffle with Kenny Irwin. Tony actually tried to climb in Kenny's window to get to him while the two were still on the race track. Again, I'm sure that Kenny is not totally without blame but Tony is the one that took it too far.
And this is just scratching the surface. How about the incidents that didn't result in (public) battles. Remember Tony driving his teammate Bobby Labonte way too hard into the third turn in Homestead last year while Bobby was in the middle of a points battle? Or how about "The Winston" this year when Tony put Mark Martin hard into the wall?
This seems like an awfully long list of notable incidents for such a short career. Tony is trying to be the next Dale Earnhardt, but instead he's well on his way to being the next "Swervin" Irvan.
Anybody want to bet me on how long it will be before Tony has to stand up at the drivers meeting and apologize? Not if.... when.
