Most of those opinions were made known via social media, throughout Twitterville and on the various NASCAR-related Facebook pages by race fans, some who count themselves among Tony's massive fanbase, some who don't but wanted to offer their sympathies, and some who should perhaps tread a little lightly these next few days, lest they find themselves in a similar situation to his after expressing their glee over another human being breaking a leg.
The NASCAR media also opined, with stories ranging from those scolding him for putting his Sprint Cup program into this situation to those praising him for making fans aware of short tracks across the country in a day and age when city councils and other morons who moved into a neighborhood, knowing full well there was a race track that had been there for 50 years or more nearby, and complained about the noise are so eager to turn those hallowed grounds into a mini-mall or a parking lot.
The purpose of this story is to try to present the situation from the view of one of Tony's biggest fans. No, it won't be as eloquent as the great pieces written by USA Today's Nate Ryan or Fox Sports' Tom Jensen or pretty much any story written by ESPN's Marty Smith (the best in the business as far as I am concerned), but hopefully it provides a little insight on the situation for those who don't root for Tony and can't see the story from this angle.
When word came that Tony had been involved in a crash and taken off in an ambulance, my first thought -as I'm sure is the case for most who were awake when the news broke - was about Jason Leffler. Fortunately, there were soon reports from the Southern Iowa Speedway that stated that Tony had been awake and alert and talking to the officials and the safety workers. Then came the rumors of a leg injury that ranged all the way to a compound fracture to the femur before we finally got the official word from Stewart-Haas Racing that Tony had broken his tibia and fibula (the two bones in the lower leg, for y'all who didn't pay attention in health class or biology). With that came the news that Tony would be out for this weekend's Watkins Glen race and likely longer, with one surgery complete to stabilize the injury completed and another one left to actually work on fixing it.
I felt a wide range of emotions, from fear to relief to anger to immense disappointment to understanding. Let me say first that the anger was never once directed at Tony and his sprint car pursuits. It was directed at the aforementioned idiots who feel big behind a computer screen and talked about how funny it was that Tony had been hurt and this and that. They have no understanding of the business of racing (hence they would understand why Ryan Newman is out at SHR next year and Danica Patrick is still in, as backwards as that may be), and frankly a lot of them were these teenage girls who don't know an axle from a tailpipe and who's only knowledge of the sport is that "like, OMG, Kasey Kahne/Dale Jr./Carl Edwards/Jimmie Johnson/Jeff Gordon/insert-whoever-else-here is SO hot!" They aren't worth getting mad over, but when you see all this crap being said about your hero, it's hard not to become incensed. I seethed for a good while.
The fear part is obvious, an immediate fear that Tony was hurt severely or that we had lost him. Relief came when we learned it was just - just - a leg injury. That was followed by the immense disappointment over the fact that he wouldn't be able to go for a record-extending sixth win in Sunday's Cheez-It 355 at the Glen, the fact that I won't get to see him race at Atlanta next month (and at this point, nobody. Finances can't justify buying tickets to a race Tony isn't in), and the fact that for only God knows how long at this point I won't get to see him race period.
The understanding part, which I turn to anytime that disappointment tries to creep back in, is that we still have Tony. Like I said a minute ago, it is just his leg. Yes it probably hurts like the dickens right now and I feel absolutely terrible for him, but doctors can fix a leg the same way the mechanics can fix a race car. Heck, if Rick Mears could come back to race and win two more Indy 500s after his feet and legs were completely shattered in a 1984 IndyCar accident, Tony can come back from a broken lower leg with no problem. The key is that we still have him and that the Good Lord and his guardian angels - whom I assume include Jason and Kenny Irwin, who would have turned 44 Monday - were looking out for him.
The best part of the day of course was Tony's message to his fans on Facebook, thanking us for our prayers and support. I cackled at the first line that read "I told someone to go get my phone or I was going to get up and get it myself." Is that our Smoke or what?
Long before Tony's accident and injury, his extra-curricular activity has been a point of contention among his fans, detractors, and the NASCAR media corps. Now the line has hardened even more, with folks on either side either criticizing or defending it more loudly than ever. It is quite telling, though, that the folks who were calling the loudest even before Tuesday for him to quit racing sprint cars have never turned a competitive lap, while drivers, mechanics, and broadcasters past and present vocally supported him doing the short track racing if he so chooses.
I've never raced, probably never will, but I fall in line with the latter group. If racing in his spare time is what Tony wants to do, then shame on anyone who would want him to stop. Yes, there are times when I wish his car of choice was something different - a dirt late model, perhaps - but I would never, ever suggest that he quit. The fact of the matter is that he has fallen in love with winged sprint cars since getting the opportunity to start racing them on a more frequent basis a few years ago. That's what he wants to drive, so all I can do is sit back, pray for his safety, and wait for an update on how he did.
He's living his life the way he wants to live it. That is something to be envied. And yes, he is responsible to a lot of folks - not me or you, but to his sponsors, his employees at Stewart-Haas Racing, the crew members of the 14 car - but you have to imagine that they already knew before they signed on the dotted line what his intentions were. It is a unique situation with a unique individual. I saw Donna Richeson, who was part of the ownership group of the No. 11 team when her then-brother-in-law Brett Bodine ran the team from 1996-2003, talking about this subject yesterday and comparing it to the situation with their team. Now, I'm not going to criticize Donna; for one thing she's an awesome lady and one of my favorite folks to interact with on Twitter, and furthermore she's much more qualified to speak on the subject of team ownership that most folks, myself included, because she's been there.
Like I said, though, it is a unique deal. I have to figure - I don't know for sure, and I don't want to be mistaken for thinking I do - that everyone knew up front what they were getting into when signing on to race with Tony and the risks that would be involved. Disappointed as Bass Pro Shops, ExxonMobil, Rush Truck Centers (the scheduled primary sponsor for this weekend's race at The Glen), Coca-Cola, Nabisco, and all the other companies who support his team have to be with the circumstances, I doubt they feel blindsided by this. I hope they don't, because I love having those brands on his car and supporting them all I can. It would be a shame if this were to sour their relationship with Tony. Will things change going forward? Maybe, but that's a bridge that will be crossed when they reach it.
Hey, at least they had more forewarning than Joe Gibbs did. The Coach famously restricted a bit of Tony's short track racing when Tony was driving the No. 20 car. Just as famously, names like Smoke Johnson, Smokey Jones, Mikey Fedorcak Jr., and Luke Warmwater started showing up in short track entry lists. No one outside of his inner circle and whoever he happened to be driving for on that evening were anymore the wise until the race was over and - often in the winner's circle - he pulled off his helmet.
It's not fun to face the fact that the next several races, perhaps the rest of the 2013 season, will go by without Tony Stewart in the field. I love all of our drivers for the most part, but it is hard to think of it as a race if he isn't in it. That's probably the big reason I seldom actively seek out Nationwide, Camping World Truck, NHRA, or IndyCar races on television. Conversely, I haven't missed a Cup race since 1998, when I would skip watching the Jeff Gordon Show in order to watch Tony race in the IRL.
I just love the guy. I've never met him and I probably never will - if I did, I'd end up like Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden in The Honeymooners (Huminahuminahuminahumina) - but every time I see him on television or wherever, it is as though I'm seeing a distant cousin or something. I'm sure I'm far from the only fan that feels that way about their driver, but it's still neat. I never say that I am his biggest fan, because that is reserved for his family and friends, but I am as big a fan as you can get otherwise and I would absolutely nominate myself for his biggest fan in the state of Georgia.
It is tough to know he's hurt, and that he will be kept away from his passion for the next few weeks. People aren't defined by their profession, but when it comes to Tony Stewart, "racer" isn't his profession. It's who he is, period. In terms of contemporary American motorsports, I'd say without hesitation that he is the best at it. Hopefully there's something to bring him some peace, whether he takes up some guest broadcasting or ups his prank-pulling to a whole new level, as he deals with his recovery and this temporary lull in the action.
awesome blog ! good job whoever wrote it !
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