BLOG: Stewart Weighs In on Petty-Danica Issue

As you might expect, Tony Stewart got into the whole Richard Petty-Danica Patrick fracas in a big way yesterday.

During the first of two PRN Fast Talk Shows at Outback Steakhouse in Daytona with Doug Rice and Mark Garrow, Stewart had his teammate's back in a big way regarding remarks that Petty made during a racing show in Canada, where he said that the only way Patrick would win a Sprint Cup Series race is if no one else showed up.

"I told her she should challenge Richard to a heads up race," said Stewart. "I think that would pretty much settle it once and for all, maybe get him to shut up a little bit too. He drove in an era when he had cars that were superior to what everybody else was running a lot. I think he forgets that, that NASCAR has changed a lot since he was a driver and how hard it really is now." 

Stewart said he'd supply the cars, make them equal in all respects and let the two have at it.

"I will supply the cars, I don't care," he said. "If he wants to race her I'll make sure they have exactly the same set-up in the car and give him a chance. He can drive one of my 14 cars I don't care." 

The suggestion on what would happen if Patrick won made some noise too. SOmeone on air suggested that she take the checkered flag over and have Richard autograph it. Stewart wasn't having any of that.

"If I were her I'd take it over and cram it up his (bleep)...If it were me, that's just me."

Now, Stewart has been known to...react aggressively when challenged. Sometimes, it doesn't even take a challenge.That's what you expect from an honest-to-God racing champion.

He and Richard have been friendly during their time in the sport, too.

However, the issue is generational, not personal, at least from my standpoint. Richard Petty is a Southern gentleman born in the 1930s, when the sexes weren't battling so hard to prove who was better.

One of the best teachers I ever had, a man named Andrew Cayton, once said something that has stuck with me for many years: you can't judge a 17th-century man by 20th-century standards. In this case, that adage applies to Petty, born 17 years after women earned the right to vote.

Yes, racing is different now than it was when Petty was winning titles and races, and the race between the two would be no contest. Danica is in her 30s, Richard in his late 70s. The cars are different, more technical, and they are a lot more even than they were when Petty Enterprises, the Wood Brothers and Holman-Moody were the big hitters in the sport.

I expected a riposte from Smoke, and at about that degree of heat. Let's hope it ends there.