WESTFIELD, Ind. — 13Sports ran into racing legend Tony Stewart in the most unlikely of places Wednesday: the 50-yard line of the Indianapolis Colts camp practice field at Grand Park in Westfield.
“I’m trying to convince these guys that if they put me on their roster, I can get in a car and I can drive the ball down to the end zone,” Stewart said with a grin. “Just about every time, I think, I feel like I can make it.”
Stewart was a Colts fan when he grew up in Indiana. On Wednesday, he showed off a personalized No. 23 Colts jersey.
“Yeah, I got a 2023 jersey, that’s what the number 23 is for. Coach is making me a member of the team here. I’m not sure what position I’m playing. I might be the ball, I’m not sure yet,” Stewart said. “So it may get interesting.”
"Smoke" — Stewart's nickname — is in town to help promote Labor Day weekend’s U.S. Nationals.
“Super excited,” Stewart said. “It is the Super Bowl, it’s the Indy 500, it’s the Daytona 500 of drag racing, it’s right here in Indiana at Lucas Oil Raceway. To get to go out to IRP there and run the U.S. Nationals, it’s something I enjoyed going and being a fan, and now I get to this year. It’s my first year getting to participate as a driver, so I’m pretty excited about it.”
Stewart will be running in the Top Alcohol class.
“Yeah, my car’s slow, compared to my wife’s and Matt Hagen’s, so Leah drives our Top Fuel car, and Matt Hagen drives the Funny Car. They’re in the 330 (miles per hour) range, but we are the fastest quarter-mile class in NHRA drag racing with the Top Alcohol dragster division, and 280 mile an hour is a good run,” Stewart said.
Despite retiring from driving on the NASCAR circuit, Stewart said he is as busy as ever these days.
“I’m not very smart, as most of you already know,” Stewart quipped. “I think when I went to read 'retirement' in the dictionary, I either read the line above or below it, but I’ve definitely messed retirement up. Literally, the last three years have been the three busiest years of my life, but I’m having a lot of fun doing it.”
“You know, I still love my Cup teams,” Stewart continued. “I have my sprint car teams, my track in Eldora and now I’ve got two NHRA drag race teams, and I get to drive for another family. So it’s a pretty cool deal. We’re really busy, but we love what we’re doing right now."
As this year’s Brickyard 400 approaches, 13Sports director Dave Calabro asked the two-time race winner if there’s still a special place in his heart for Indianapolis.
"Yeah, especially on race day. I mean, you know, we got a busy week with Knoxville Nationals in Iowa, which is their Super Bowl as well, but I will not miss the Brickyard on Sunday, and I promise you when you walk through and get to pit road there, I get that same feeling as I did when I was a driver. I don’t think that feeling ever goes away when you’re at Indy," Stewart said.