Passing Lane

A NASCAR BLOG BY Mike Hembree

TEXT SIZE: Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size Reset Text Size
No Comments. Leave a Comment

Digg This
Add to Del.icio.us
RSS Feeds
Email
Print

Stewart cries foul again

Feb 11

JOLIET, Ill. – If Tony Stewart only had to drive a race car, his life would be grand.

He can do that. No question. He may be one of the 20 best drivers to sit in any sort of race car anywhere.

Unfortunately, Stewart drives race cars at a level that creates interest beyond his immediate household, so other people become involved. And that doesn’t work in Stewart’s life.

As he almost always does when he creates trouble, as he did when he crashed his teammate, Denny Hamlin, from the lead at Daytona on July 7, Stewart found a way to shove a king’s portion of the responsibility on others.

First, astonishingly, he leveled his gun at Hamlin, who had the misfortune of being in his way.

Then, after a week of general pouting on both sides of the issue, with Stewart and Hamlin issuing their versions, Stewart found victory lane Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway and did what was to be expected of him. He put much of the responsibility for the continuing discussion about the Daytona incident at the media’s feet, once more hitting that soft belly that he loves to punch (mostly figuratively these days).

In Stewart’s view, these things are almost always much ado about nothing. The key phrase is “blown out of proportion”. It’s one he apparently learned right after “Mama.”

I’m thinking he probably didn’t tell the boss, Joe Gibbs, that he, too, was blowing things out of proportion Saturday when he altered his schedule to make a special trip to the race track to talk some sense into his drivers.