Tony Stewart has had 19 total starts at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 11 of those are in a Sprint car, five in IndyCar and three starts in IROC. Stewart has won two Brickyard races (2005 and 2007).
Here are some of Stewart's thoughts on the Brickyard, and racing at IMS:
On his approach now that he is an owner and a driver:
You don't come here and try to do anything any different. That's when you get yourself outside the box. The great thing for me is I've got a great support structure at Stewart-Haas. It allows me the flexibility to just come here and worry about doing what we do best, and that's drive. It's hard to play the owner role and the driver role on the weekends. I mean, I don't want to sit there and worry about what the tire bill is for the weekend. I want to worry about making sure I know what I need to do as a driver. We've worked really hard to establish that system, so we wont change it when we come to Indy.
On why the Brickyard is such a big deal to him:
It's my home race obviously. Growing up in Indiana and every year watching the Indy 500 and the whole month of May leading up to it, a race at the Brickyard is more than just a regular race. It's always been a big race to all of the Cup drivers, but then when you grow up in Indiana, it just makes it that much more important.
On what his first win at Indy felt like:
You dream about something for so long, you become consumed by it. When I was in USAC trying to make a living as a racecar driver, I drove a tow truck for a guy I raced Sprint cars against. I would drive down Georgetown toward 16th Street, parallel with the frontstretch, and wonder what it would be like 300 feet to the left running 200 mph. I got the chance to do that, and finally, after years of trying to win, be it in Indy cars or stock cars, I got to know what it feels like, to see that view coming down the front straightaway, seeing the checkered flag and knowing that I was the first driver to cross the stripe, versus the second, third, or fourth-place guy. I had wanted that moment for so long, and I finally got it.
On what he thinks makes Indy such a hard drive to drive around:
It's a place that is a momentum-driven track. You don't just have two ends to the racetrack and two big 180-degree corners. You've got four 90-degree corners to negotiate. If you have one bad corner at Indy and if your car's not right, you're going to be bad in four corners versus two corners a lap. And with it being two-and-a-half miles, you carry so much speed, if you lose momentum at that track, it just seems like it's really a big penalty.
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