TONY STEWART, Driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing:

 

 

It’s been a couple of years since Michigan was repaved. How much do you think the track will have changed during the course of the last year?

 

“It’s hard to say but it should be better. That first year, once it cleaned off, it seemed like the track got to be pretty good. It was still a relatively one-groove track, but it got better as the weekend went on. It was even better last year and really we should see more of the same even with the higher speeds. Hopefully, the racetrack will continue on that path and continue to widen out. It was a lot racier than I thought it would be, right off the bat, and it’s just been getting better so I’m anticipating it’s going to be even better when we get back on it this weekend with our Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevy.”

 

 

When the temperature gets hotter, so do you. Why is that?

 

“I honestly think it’s my dirt background. It just seems like when the tracks get hotter and slicker, that it just plays into my driving style. I like the tracks to be slick and hot and how it forces you to search around. I think that’s been the key to our success from day one.”

 

 

What kind of opportunity does Michigan present?

 

“Now that they’ve repaved it, it’s just lightning fast. And the groove is getting wider and wider so it’s easier to race there. It’s definitely just a fast, fast racetrack. We talk about momentum. Momentum is a huge deal there. You carry so much speed to the turns, and the corners are so long and so round, you have to be very smooth there.”

 

 

Michigan falls on Father’s Day weekend. Do you have any particular racing memories of you and your dad?

 

“Probably the first 10 years of my life in racing, we raced together with our go-karts. I would say probably our greatest memory is the first Grand Nationals that we went to in Iowa together. We won out there, and I think it was about four o’clock in the morning when we finally finished. I was 12 years old, so it was way past my bedtime, but it was the first time I had seen that much excitement in my father’s face. I guess he realized more at the time what we had accomplished than what I realized had happened.”

 

 

You missed the last 15 races of the 2013 season with a broken right leg. As you come upon the 15^th race of the 2014 season, how do you feel, physically and mentally?

 

“I honestly thought I would be done with all this by now. As far as rehab, pain, all that stuff, I thought it would all be done. I thought we would be healed 100 percent by now. But keep going to the doctor on our scheduled appointments and they keep updating us on how it’s going and what they think the outlook is for it. We just adjust it. When you haven’t gone through something like this, you don’t know what to think and don’t know how to feel about it. You don’t know what to judge for recovery times and this and that because you’ve just never been through it. If it ever happens again, I will have a better idea of how to answer that. You just take it a day at a time still.”

 

TONY STEWART’S MICHIGAN PERFORMANCE PROFILE

Year	Event	Start	Finish	Status/Laps	Laps Led	Earnings
2013	Quicken Loans 400	14	5	Running, 200/200	0	$142,085
2012	Quicken Loans 400	8	2	Running, 200/200	18	$179,160
	×Pure Michigan 400	14	32	Engine, 109/201	0	$128,710
2011	Heluva Good! 400	6	7	Running, 200/200	0	$127,608
	×Pure Michigan 400	18	9	Running, 203/203	0	$125,758
2010	Heluva Good! 400	17	5	Running, 200/200	0	$132,798
	CARFAX 400	4	6	Running, 200/200	36	$131,223
2009	LifeLock 400	11	7	Running, 200/200	0	$109,923
	CARFAX 400	18	17	Running, 200/200	2	$97,698
2008	†×LifeLock 400	12	5	Running, 203/203	1	$136,986
	3M Performance 400	21	12	Running, 200/200	0	$126,461
2007	Citizens Bank 400	41	3	Running, 200/200	2	$157,586
	×3M Performance 400	35	10	Running, 203/203	0	$135,411
2006	*3M Performance 400	17	41	Accident, 58/129	0	$122,666
	GFS Marketplace 400	33	3	Running, 200/200	0	$159,736
2005	Batman Begins 400	3	2	Running, 200/200	97	$174,461
	GFS Marketplace 400	36	5	Running, 200/200	0	$135,491
2004	DHL 400	27	24	Running, 200/200	0	$106,543
	†GFS Marketplace 400	4	9	Running, 200/200	0	$112,493
2003	Sirius 400	2	8	Running, 200/200	51	$110,843
	GFS Marketplace 400	23	3	Running, 200/200	0	$140,063
2002	Sirius Satellite Radio 400	10	16	Running, 199/200	0	$92,618
	Pepsi 400	24	2	Running, 200/200	0	$136,183
2001	Kmart 400	37	25	Running, 198/200	0	$57,490
	*Pepsi 400	10	27	Running, 161/162	0	$55,890
2000	*Kmart 400	28	1	Running, 194/194	13	$123,800
	Pepsi 400	19	41	Accident, 36/200	0	$41,250
1999	Kmart 400	28	9	Out of Gas, 198/200	0	$34,450
	Pepsi 400	37	3	Running, 200/200	4	$60,505

× Race length extended due to green-white-checker finish.                                            

† Qualifying canceled due to weather, starting position set via car owner points.                                                                                                                                 

* Race cut short due to weather.