By Dick Mittman
allstate400atthebrickyard.com
Saturday, August 3, 2002
Tony Stewart calls it "my hell week" when he comes home to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to drive in the Brickyard 400.
But after he won the pole Saturday for the ninth annual Brickyard 400 on Sunday with a record-shattering speed, it's hard to think this is "heaven week" for the other 42 starters. Stewart's speed of 182.960 mph turned in his No. 20 Home Depot Pontiac is more than eight-tenths of a mile per hour faster than fellow front-row starter Bill Elliott.
Stewart, from nearby Columbus, Ind., recorded his top speed as the 11th qualifier of a rare morning session. Dale Earnhardt Jr. broke the previous fastest stock-car lap on the 2.5-mile oval of 181.072 set by Brett Bodine in 2000 with a hot lap of 181.627, and then Elliott eclipsed that figure with a circuit of 182.109.
All three drivers were able to make their runs before a scorching sun hiked the track temperature to 135 degrees.
However, it isn't the sun that puts the heat on Stewart when he returns to the state of his roots. It's his family, friends and fans who want a piece of his time.
"As much as I love being home, I hate this week," Stewart said. "I bet my phone rang 400 times last night because everybody knew that it was my only night off, and everybody wanted to take me to dinner or go out and ride Harleys last night. It creates a big hassle for three days.
"It's all fun. I enjoy the week from some aspects, but for the majority of it, it's more headaches than it is fun."
Stewart said he puts more pressure on himself at Indy than anywhere else.
"It's just one of those weekends that when I'm not in the car, I need to go sit in a cold closet by myself and just relax," he said. "I get too amped up about what's going on and being home and being back at the Speedway here."
The Speedway has been Stewart's Mecca since he was a child. When he started racing USAC open-wheel cars, his dream was to win the Indianapolis 500. It wasn't until the formation of the Indy Racing League that he got his opportunity to drive at Indy for the first time in 1996.
He started on the pole as a rookie after teammate and pole sitter Scott Brayton suffered fatal injuries during practice. Stewart became an instant superstar, winning the 1996-97 IRL championship and then moved to NASCAR Winston Cup full time in 1999 with team owner Joe Gibbs.
Stewart has never lost his passion for racing at the Speedway. Twice he has done the May daily double of the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. He has started 11th, 18th and ninth in three previous Brickyard 400 starts from 1999-2001 and finished seventh, fifth and 17th.
Stewart is a brutally honest person. He tells the media what he thinks about a subject, and at the post-qualifying press conference Saturday he didn't rave about being the pole sitter. He knows a pole sitter has yet to win the Brickyard 400.
"I could care less about the poles," Stewart said. "I want my name on the Brick, I want my name on the Borg-Warner Trophy."
But he does understand that the pole is important to his crew chief Greg Zipadelli and crew. They've taken a 6-year-old car and made it competitive through dedicated work, Stewart said.
"It's a big pat on the back for our guys back at the race shop," Stewart said. "Taking a 6-year-old car - they've taken every little fine point that they can and tried to massage on it and make it better and better, where these other teams are taking 2-year-old cars, and they're taking big chunks of aero off and finding big things they can do to make their cars better."
The team also used a different engine combination than in the past, Stewart said.
"Everybody's got a role here," he said. "This is one of those tracks that challenges every aspect of the team."
The Gibbs team was so concerned about the balance of the Pontiac that it tested a Chevrolet in July at Indianapolis as well as their regular Pontiac. The decision finally was made to stick with the known commodity although Stewart and teammate Bobby Labonte turned their fastest laps in the Chevy.
"Not knowing what to do to the car aero-wise and mechanic balance-wise to compliment the aero package when we came back here basically led to the decision," Stewart said.
But everything was in balance during Stewart's qualifying lap. On the warm-up lap, his car appeared to have a lot of grip, more than he had experienced in the initial practice session Friday.
"I felt like I could charge into (Turn) 1 pretty hard," he said. "The car drove really well through 1, so the amount that I stepped it up in 1, I stepped it up everywhere and just had the confidence that the car was going to stay underneath me."
The time for his quick circuit was 49.191 seconds. This trimmed Bodine's 2000 benchmark time by .513 of a second.
Stewart should be bubbling with confidence, but he referred to last year's race as a warning bell to take a cautious approach toward earning his long-desired first victory at the Speedway.
"I had so much confidence last year that I screwed up and hit the fence on my own and made my own mistake," he said.
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