iNSIDE SCOOP: It Happens, OK?

With the news that Tony Stewart broke his right leg in a sprint car crash in Iowa last night, there comes a continuous drum beat of questions and speculation that maybe, just maybe, Stewart ought not to be tempting fate by racing old-school.

Pshaw.

I know Smoke well enough to speculate on his reaction to those, some of which leaked out last weekend at Pocono after he bicycled off Turn 2 in Canada and barrel-rolled into the fence. I can’t print it, but I can speculate.

Look, racing is a contact sport. It’s dangerous, and it can kill you no matter how well-prepared you are and how many precautions you take. Sprint cars, by their very nature, are beasts, even with a barn door on top of them in the form of a wing. Short wheelbase, not a lot to them, as much power or more power than a NASCAR Sprint Cup car…it’s a handful.

It’s also throwback racing. The sport was born in this country and enjoyed some of its biggest popularity when guys like Jud Larson, A.J. Foyt, Don Branson, Jimmy Bryan and Johnnie Parsons rode the cushion around the country. Their heads stuck up out of the car, no roll-cage, hardly any safety gear…and they raced their butts off. 

A lot of them, sadly, died doing it, too. Today it’s still dangerous, but not nearly as much as it was then.

Tony Stewart grew up doing it on the dirt, in open-wheel cars, and he did it as well or better than any of the drivers listed above. It’s his nature, his passion and his greatest love. Going fast on the dirt is a thrill. You’re sideways, pedal to the ground, and you have no rear-view mirror to help you. No spotters, no multi-billion-dollar TV deals, no pit stops. It’s racing at its most primal.

Kenny Wallace recently said that dirt racing “feeds my soul” in a way that NASCAR racing doesn’t anymore. 

It is the same with Stewart. Yeah, he’s a three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, and yeah, he’s won a ton of races and a bunchaton of money. But when he wakes up in the morning, he’s thinking about racing on the dirt, high, wide and handsome. Not all the time, mind you, because he is a team owner and a very important guy in NASCAR.

But he does it often enough to make a difference.

If you’ve ever been around him at a dirt track, you’ll know what I mean. He’s a different cat. He’s looser, less tense and more interested in making the A Main than doing an interview or an appearance. From the times I’ve been around him at dirt tracks, he’s just…Tony Stewart, sprint car/modified/midget driver, not Tony Stewart, NASCAR star and champion.

That’s why he races on the dirt, it’s why he owns World of Outlaws and USAC teams, and it’s why he’ll get back on the dirt as soon as he can.

Can’t change a leopard’s spots, you know. We can talk all day about whether he should be doing it or not, but that’s between him, Gene Haas and the sponsors he has at Stewart-Haas Racing. It’s his life, his career and his future. 

Let Tony be Tony, and remember that racing is, was and always will be dangerous. That’s what makes it great.