Stewart shows his human side in Bloomington

Bloomington resident Marlo Bowlen had some issues with her camera Thursday evening when she first got her picture with NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Tony Stewart.

“It didn’t turn out right,” said Bowlen, after she had managed to get herself back inside the Bloomington J.D. Byrider Auto Sales office for another frame with Stewart.

“Can we take another one?” she asked the two-time champion.

Stewart gladly obliged, but cautioned Bowlen before her friend Natalie Watkins pushed the shutter button on the digital camera.

“I’ll have to warn you that this one isn’t going to be any better because I’m still in it,” said a grinning, self-depricating Stewart, drawing laughs from the store’s employees, two police officers and fans who were in earshot.

That’s the Tony Stewart people love. That’s the driver who has secured the hearts of so many adoring race fans who show up to watch him at all 36 races on the Sprint Cup schedule. And that’s especially the person who so many people in his home state of Indiana admire.

He’s humorous.

He’s realistic.

He’s as close as race fans get to a driver who is just like them.

And, most of the time, he is just downright nice.

The good things Stewart has done could fill a decent-sized book. His charity, the Tony Stewart Foundation, donates millions of dollars a year to organizations benefiting chronically-ill children, endangered animal species and other drivers who have found themselves injured from racing-related activities.

But then, there are the bad times with “Smoke,” his nickname in the NASCAR garage area.

He’s had altercations on and off the track with other drivers and NASCAR officials, most recently in Indianapolis prior to the Allstate 400 in July when he knocked off the headset of and pushed a United States Auto Club official during a midget race at O’Reilly Raceway Park.

And just two weeks ago in Richmond, Va., Stewart lit into his crew over the in-car radio after finishing second and blamed them for coming up short in the race.
Everyone gets mad, and that’s something I understand. And I get the fact that Stewart doesn’t have the option of anonymity, but at some point you would think the guy – the Hoosier who can be so down to Earth – would learn to channel that frustration in a better manner.

Regardless, Thursday night at J.D. Byrider, Stewart was refreshing, fun and a joy to be around as I would imagine he normally is.

It’s nights like Thursday that make Stewart the guy he is – the driver who still lives in his childhood home despite the multiple zeros in his checking account, the one who doesn’t have a problem taking that second picture for a fan.

And it’s nights like Thursday that make people all over the country just like Bowlen fall head over heels for Stewart.