NASCAR: Tiring questions no problem for Tony Stewart

BY BRIAN T. SMITH

BRISTOL HERALD COURIER

BRISTOL, Tenn. — The rain fell at Bristol Motor Speedway and Tony Stewart ran through it.

Then Stewart jumped, shouted and playfully pushed a friend.

It was a side of Stewart that many NASCAR fans have grown to love.

The loose, carefree, easygoing side.

Stewart as a real person. Stewart as just one of the guys.

But as soon as Stewart’s brief moment of respite was over, he was forced to show his other side.

The opinionated side.

The side that’s not afraid to give real, hard answers to real, hard questions.

And Stewart didn’t back down on Friday afternoon.

Fifteen of the 26 questions that Stewart answered in a makeshift press conference outside his trailer centered around Goodyear tires and comments Stewart made criticizing the quality of the product Goodyear offered to NASCAR drivers in last Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 in Atlanta, Ga.

Once the trial was over, Stewart sounded relieved.

After a long line of Goodyear-based queries, Stewart was asked to answer a question about being back at BMS and its highly praised short track.

Stewart’s initial response was telling.

"I’d love to," he said, smiling.

But then it was back to Goodyear questions. Lots of them. And Stewart didn’t disappoint. He answered every single one.

"We all can’t be wrong is what I want to say about it," Stewart said. "Not all of us can be wrong about it all the time. You hate that it comes to this, but that’s what happened."

And Stewart still wasn’t done talking Goodyear.

Because as soon as Stewart’s meeting with the media ended, another Goodyear discussion waited.

But this one was one-on-one.

Stewart met with Stu Grant, Goodyear general manager of worldwide racing, around 2 p.m. on Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway - just minutes after Stewart finished taking questions from the media - according to Goodyear public relations representative Mike Siberni.

The meeting was an effort to move things forward. But it was also an effort to address the past.

"My comments last week were made in frustration and made to get Goodyear’s attention," Stewart said in a press release. "But what I overlooked when I made those comments was that they affected people who had nothing to do with the racing program. I want to apologize to the people who work in the factories and the union workers at Goodyear. We realize that they’re working hard just like everybody else, and we realize that Goodyear as a whole works hard too."

Meanwhile, Grant sounded happy just to have gotten Stewart to say something positive about Goodyear, whose stock has recently taken a hit.

"I was pleased with the meeting that I had with Tony," Grant said. "It was an excellent meeting. It was constructive. It was extremely worthwhile to sit down and have a discussion with him."

Yet, Stewart also wasn’t backing down.

He took a stand in Atlanta.

And he was holding his ground in Bristol.

"We’re hoping that Goodyear will now work with us a little better on the racing side of things and rely on our input a little more, because we are the ones driving the cars," he said. "It was a good meeting, but at the end of the day, it’s up to Goodyear to make it right."