Denise Maloof: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to this week’s NASCAR cam video teleconference, ahead of this weekend’s events at Chicagoland Speedway. Our guest today is Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot Old Spice Chevrolet. He’s a two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion and a two-time Chicagoland winner. Welcome.

Tony Stewart: Thank you.

Denise Maloof: Tony also had some other duties this weekend, all for a good cause. The hood of his car will sport a colorful reminder of every parent’s back to school shopping list which will be fun, and Tony will partner with the Office Depot Foundation to donate 4,200 backpacks to kids in need in the special back to school backpack celebration event this Thursday at a local Office Depot store in Chicago. It’s all part of the 10th anniversary celebration of Office Depot Foundation’s national backpack program. Eventually, Tony will help to donate 300,000 backpacks to kids in need across the country during the 2010 back to school season.

Tony, excellent stuff there.

Tony Stewart: Yeah, it’s really cool. Obviously being with Office Depot and learning about the national backpack program that started in 2001, it’s a really, really big effort that they put forth every year. Last year we were able to be a part of helping them donate their two millionth backpack. This year they will have donated 2,300,000 backpacks by the end of the back to school season. To donate 300,000 more backpacks this year is an awesome milestone for them.

It’s something I’m really, really proud of, to have the back to school paint scheme this weekend at Chicago is really cool. To have a lot of different vendors being represented on the car is really going to be neat.

It’s a perfect time of year to remind everybody that school will be coming up sooner than we think. So to go to Office Depot and get your supplies, for sure.

Denise Maloof: School will be on us before we know it.

Before we get started with the media, we do have a question for you. It’s a fan question from our NASCAR Twitter account. Samantha from Wisconsin wants to know what is the most difficult part of being a car owner.

Tony Stewart: You know, the hardest thing right now is the economy. It takes a lot of money to fund these teams. There’s so many great things about it that I enjoy. I really enjoy working with the people. There’s so many guys on our team that have been involved in racing all their life. There’s a lot of guys now that specialize in engineering or different areas that haven’t necessarily been racers all their life. But at Stewart Haas Racing, we’ve got a lot of true racers, I call them, that have been racing all their life. Now we all work together.

But, you know, the hardest part is generating and raising the funds that you need to run these multi-million dollar race teams. It’s a very costly sport. It takes a lot of funding to do that. That seems to be the hardest part, is just finding the funds to do everything we need to do.

Denise Maloof: Let’s go straight to media questions for Tony Stewart.

Q: Tony, I just wanted to ask you, excluding Daytona, a lot of reasons for the wrecks, after Darlington, you were 18th in points. You really climbed the ladder into the top 12 now. Can you talk a little bit about what you found, what you’re doing now that you weren’t doing before.

Tony Stewart: Well, I don’t know that there’s been one particular thing that has really changed it all for us. We’ve just been working hard. It’s kind of like last year. We had a great first half of the season, then just kind of fell off. We didn’t really feel like we were doing anything different. We just weren’t hitting on the things that we needed to in the fall to keep us good.

I think it’s kind of worked the opposite way this year so far. We just weren’t finding the things to make the car happy. As time is going on, every week we’re just learning a little more about what to do to get the feel in the car that I like. It’s been working out.

So, yeah, I agree. We weren’t happy where we were at in the points. I’m still not really comfortable where we’re at in the point standings right now, but we’re definitely making gains for sure.

But it’s not just one thing. It’s a lot of little things here and there. The engine department, they keep making gains. Our chassis are getting better. At our shop, our shock engineers, everybody has just really been digging deep. You don’t have to find one big chunk to make a big gain like that. A lot of times it’s very, very small details that each individual department will find that helps bring the whole performance of the team up.

Q: Tony, a question related to USAC. You’re very close to that series. From the outside, it doesn’t seem like we’ve seen as many guys make the jump from there into NASCAR’s national divisions as we once did. Are the guys in USAC still looking at NASCAR as a viable career path? Is it harder to find rides? Is the talent still down there?

Tony Stewart: There’s definitely a lot of talent. You have Bobby Santos that ran at Louden in the modified, Levi Jones who drives for us in USAC, and Bryan Clausen who has run some stock car stuff here. There’s still a lot of interest. There’s definitely a lot of talent. We got Josh Richards who runs our dirt late model. He’s been running a little bit of ARCA stuff, trying to get his feet wet here. There’s definitely a lot of interest.

The hard part right now, the economy’s kind of got everything backed up a little bit to where it’s hard for these drivers. Unless they have millions of dollars in sponsorship that they can bring, their talent alone won’t get them the opportunity down here they deserve.

It’s really hard right now for those guys to get the opportunity. There’s a ton of talent not only in USAC ranks but all over the country in different forms of racing. The hard part is there’s only so many spots here to fill. So it’s still back the way it always has been. It’s really hard to get your opportunity down here.

There’s definitely a lot of drivers, not only in USAC, but across the country that have the talent to do it.

Q: So that era that produced guys like you and Ryan and Kasey, that was lightning in a bottle sort of moment? We can’t expect that thing all the time out of there?

Tony Stewart: I don’t know that it’s necessarily just with us. The hard thing is to have their opportunities, there has to be somewhere for them to go when they get here. That’s the problem. There’s those guys, and there’s the talented drivers waiting. There’s just not good opportunities for them to come down here right now. Bryan Clausen has been running. He went back to running Sprint cars. Josh Wise is running races in the Nationwide Series. There’s just not a lot of cars available for these guys to get in. That’s the hard part. There has to be cars for them to drive before they can actually make that move.

Q: Do you find that people, whether it’s fans, media or corporate America, that looks at you guys, the drivers, now more as entertainers instead of athletes in light of the changes that have been done to enhance what some would call the show, and even now talks of changes to the Chase? Do people forget you’re athletes and look at you more as an entertainer, per se?

Tony Stewart: I don’t know that it’s really changed. I think over the years that’s kind of changed a little bit. But I think they still respect the athletic side. Granted, we’re not running up and down the court or wearing pads or jumping or anything like that. But to sit in the cars with the temperatures that we deal with, the g-forces we deal with all day, there is that physical aspect to it.

But I think anytime you’re in an industry, even though it’s sports, we’re still in the entertainment industry, too. That’s what keeps people coming back every week. So, you know, people do look at you from that side I think so now more than ever.

But I don’t think they forgot about the physical aspect of it. But these people and the fans are so passionate about their drivers, you know, they are, they’re entertained by us. I think that is a big aspect of their lives. We’re very thankful for that.

Q: I know you’re still looking for sponsorship for your two cars. At this point what would you list as the percentage likelihood you could or would expand to a third team for next year?

Tony Stewart: I would say there’s probably a zero percent chance we’ll expand to a third team for next year. We’re still trying to fill the void when Old Spice changes this year. We’re talking to a lot of great people. There’s a lot of good opportunities out there. It’s just a matter of finding a package that works for somebody to fill our spot. There’s still races we’re trying to take care of on Ryan’s car.

The hard part about it is, it just takes funding. We could be up to a four-car team very quickly. But it takes the funding to get it done.

Q: Tony, looking ahead to a couple weeks, we have Indianapolis on the schedule. You got a couple of wins under your belt already. Being a car owner at the same time, does that kind of reset your goals and make you even more hungry to win there as well?

Tony Stewart: No. I don’t know how my goal could change. I mean, I go to Indy for one reason and one reason only. It’s never changed. I’m just so passionate about the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Whether it’s a driver, owner, the good thing is I got two opportunities to have a shot at winning at Indy.

But to me, I mean, I obviously first and foremost want to win as a driver. But if we can’t do that and if I can go to Victory Lane as a car owner there, that would be just as special to me to be standing there with Ryan. So it’s cool to have that opportunity.

Q: Obviously you probably talked to Ryan about that goal. He’s got to be pretty excited about being in such good equipment to win at one of his favorite tracks as well.

Tony Stewart: Yeah. I mean, obviously both of us growing up from Indiana, it’s a special event for the whole series in general, but when you’ve grown up around that speedway, it’s a big goal and a life-long dream for us to have that opportunity. We’re both excited about it.

Q: There is a lot of talk about possible changes to the Chase, new tracks, formats and all. I realize you’re captive to whatever NASCAR wants to do. Does it matter to you if they make some dramatic changes to the Chase?

Tony Stewart: I don’t think so. I mean, you know, I believe in Brian France. I believe in the vision that he has. He’s learned from two of the greatest promotors in all of racing with his father and grandfather.

I guarantee whatever it’s gonna be and whatever they’re talking about and looking into as far as changes are concerned, that it’s something that’s been well-thought out and will be good for our series. Anytime that it’s good for the series, it’s good for all of us, too.

Everybody was skeptical about the format of the Chase to begin with. But, you know, it’s provided some great, great excitement for our series at the end of the year.

The good thing is it’s the same for everybody. That’s all you ask for. It really doesn’t matter what the format is to us, you know, you just learn how to plan for it and how to adapt to it.

Q: Tony, we’re going to go see the cheetahs tomorrow at the Indianapolis Zoo. I wanted you to share with me the experience working with them and the conservationists out there. If you could share one funny tidbit about filming that commercial.

Tony Stewart: We had a lot of fun. We’ve worked with the Indianapolis Zoo in helping be a part of building the cheetah exhibit at the Indy Zoo. It was pretty cool. We had a whole day at Stewart Haas Racing, we had Jack Hannah, one of his two guys brought down Roe, who is a male cheetah. We got to shoot the commercial spots for it to help promote the Zoo.

It’s really, really cool. They’ve got I think males and three females that are there. They’re actually separated because they don’t — the females and males don’t get along that well with each other. A part of the exhibit is you get a chance to race a cheetah. It’s actually a section of running track. The light runs across the speed that the cheetah runs. You run and see how far you can get by the time the cheetah gets to the end. It gives you perspective. I think it’s 50 cents to race against the cheetah there. The money that that generates helps go to the conservation efforts in Africa. It’s cool to see such a beautiful animal. For me it was a great experience.

I’ve always loved animals. I got along with Roe really well right off the bat. Toward the end of the day, I was walking Roe around the shop. We got some really, really neat pictures. You go to TonyStewart.com, we’ve got some really good pictures of Roe and I interacting that people can get.

It was a really cool do to do that. There’s not many times in your life you get an opportunity to spend time with a wild animal like that. So it definitely was a day I’ll never forget. The exhibit was awesome. We got to go up a couple weeks ago and do the grand opening for it. It’s really, really neat to see how hard people are working to help with the conservation efforts.

Q: I know you had a monkey. Do you think a cheetah will go to the new place?

Tony Stewart: No. Mojo is down at the Louisville Zoo where he’s getting better taken care of than we can take care of. We still get a chance to go down and work with the Louisville Zoo also. We get to go back and interact with him. He still recognizes us. He still remembers who raised him.

We’re still very passionate about him.

Q: You’ve won twice at Chicagoland. I wanted to find out what you think of the track, if the track holds kind of a special place for you with those two victories.

Tony Stewart: Well, you always like tracks that you win at. But it’s fun. I mean, it’s a great race for us. We’ve got two tracks that are very close to home, basically a couple weeks away from each other. But a lot of our friends and family, a lot of our friends that are from Wisconsin and Illinois get a chance to come to watch us there. It makes for a really cool weekend.

Actually, it’s not quite as busy as when we got to Indianapolis, so we get to spend a little more time with our friends that we don’t get to see often from that area. We like it. I’m very appreciative the track took the time and put the lights in. I think it’s added a lot to our race. Looking forward to a great weekend there.

Q: You said after the track put the lights in, it added a lot to the race. How so? Does it change actually how you run the race? Give it more grip?

Tony Stewart: It does give the track more grip. Obviously, the cooler the track temperature is, the better grip that we have in the car. We definitely get to run faster. But it’s the same for everybody. I wish I could say that when the sun goes down at the end of the day, we’re the only ones that benefit from it.

I think there’s something about watching Cup cars racing at night. If the cars bottom out, you see the sparks. That’s an aspect you don’t normally get to see during a daytime race. I just think it just adds to the excitement. I always thought night races were just more exciting in general.

Q: Do NASCAR Hall of Fame drivers and nominees, do you think they differ a lot from present drivers? How would you compare the Hall of Fame NASCAR nominees present, maybe future, to Hall of Fame athletes in other sports?

Tony Stewart: Well, I think there’s a lot of similarities. Obviously, by the time you get nominated to go in the Hall of Fame, you’ve definitely been around for quite some time.

No matter what professional sport you’re in, whether it football, basketball, baseball, as time goes on, the sport changes, and physically you’re different than you were when you were in your peak. I think there’s a lot of similarities there.

But I think we saw an example of it last year at Bristol, watching the older guys go back and run the late models there. The sport’s changed a little bit since they ran. Definitely in auto racing, in particular, the technology changes so fast that what we’re doing and the types of cars we’re driving now, the setups on the cars are drastically different than when these Hall of Fame drivers were running their cars. It’s definitely a lot different for them.

Q: There’s been a lack of development of the younger drivers. Last week Brian France alluded to the fact there may be some changes coming up to the Nationwide Series, not necessarily eliminating Cup drivers, but getting more Nationwide drivers more seat time. Do you agree with that aspect that there needs to be more of a college football version of the bracket series being in the Nationwide?

Tony Stewart: I’m all for guys getting more time. The hard part is, you know, trying to figure out the guys that we already have running, making sure — the first step, in my opinion, is to make sure that the 43 cars starting the race aren’t starting and pulling in after 20 laps. You could give more guys opportunities, but if they’re having to park their cars after 20 laps, they’re not learning anything.

The bigger thing is trying to get the young drivers that already have the opportunity, trying to get it to a way where they can run the full race and not have to park the cars to save money.

But, you know, I understand that side of it. What people don’t realize, this is different than college sports versus pro sports. Last night I raced in Macon, Illinois. If everybody had that mindset that Cup drivers shouldn’t go down and run another level, then I shouldn’t have been racing at Macon, Illinois last night. Neither would Kenny Wallace and Kenny Schrader, who was there also.

Fans come to see those guys, too. You’re eliminating a chance — what people don’t realize is this is how we all make our living, we drive racecars and make a living driving racecars. The guys that choose to run on Saturday, that’s part of how they make their living, too.

I’m not sure it’s fair to try to eliminate those guys and try to keep those guys from racing also. In a perfect world, you’d have a lot of guys having that opportunity to do it. But I don’t know that there’s a simple solution to fix that.

Q: With the back to school paint scheme, do you think you might get a little bit more of a reaction from the younger fans?

Tony Stewart: I hope so. I mean, I’ve seen the artwork of the car. It’s a pretty cool car this year. I thought last year’s scheme was pretty cool. This year’s is pretty cool, too. Especially after we did the back to school car last year, seeing how many kids actually brought them to autograph sessions throughout the remainder of the year was a pretty good indication of how popular it was.

Q: Tony, you mentioned that a lot of times the race fans forget about the g-forces you drivers have to go through. What track on the NASCAR circuit, in your opinion, puts out the most g-forces?

Tony Stewart: Uhm, you know, I would say probably in all reality Daytona has the biggest individual loads because of the bumps of how it loads you in the seat. Bristol and Dover are two tracks that I can think of that definitely have you pinned in the seat a lot because of how small the tracks are and the loads that we carry through the corners.

You do that for four hours, you’re loading the right side of your body like that, it’s definitely a physical sport that people sometimes forget about.

Q: Looking a few weeks ahead to August, MIS, the last time you were you finished well moving up in the Sprint Cup Series series rankings. How do you hope to finish in the upcoming race at MIS?

Tony Stewart: I mean, it helps everybody, because everybody gets a chance to learn from the time before. I think it’s kind of an obvious answer of how we want to run. Nobody goes into a race going, I think I’ll just try to run 30th to 35th. We obviously want to win every time we go out. That’s what we’re hoping for.

We’re trying to improve every week on where we run. We had a good run there at MIS last time. Hopefully we can have a better one this time and finish a little higher.

Q: Are there any aspects of the racetrack that you like particularly?

Tony Stewart: Yeah, you know, Michigan is a very, very wide racetrack. The good thing with that is it gives us as drivers an opportunity to move around to different spots of the track and help ourselves out as far as if our cars aren’t handling exactly the way we want, you can normally move around and find a spot that’s a little bit better and helps you out.

That’s one thing about MIS that I think all the drivers really like, is that there are so many options. It’s not a track that’s ‘line committed’, we call it, where you’re stuck in one spot on the racetrack. We have the flexibility to move around. That gives us the opportunity to make our cars drive a little better without having to make changes.

Denise Maloof: Tony, thanks for being with us today. We appreciate it. Good luck this weekend.

Tony Stewart: Thank you, guys.

How many championships? Eleven in all – eight in USAC and three in the World of Outlaws, with the most recent titles coming last Saturday night when Donny Schatz claimed this year’s Outlaws championship for Brownsburg, Ind.-based Tony Stewart Racing. And Stewart will officially get one more this weekend, as his USAC driver, Levi Jones, leads the Sprint car standings by an insurmountable 178 points heading into the USAC season finale in Tulare, Calif. It will be Jones’ third career Sprint car title.

So while this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup title may be out of reach for Stewart, championships in the other series where he has an ownership stake are well in hand. That should signal to Stewart’s competitors in the NASCAR garage that the man nicknamed “Smoke” will continue to be a championship presence. Just as his open-wheel program got better with age, expect the same with Stewart’s NASCAR operation.

NASCAR’s April visit to Phoenix International Raceway was a case in point. After top-10s turned into top-fives during the season’s first seven races, Stewart scored the first runner-up result for Stewart-Haas Racing when he finished second to race winner Mark Martin. That run served as a precursor for a string of success achieved by Stewart-Haas Racing, for a month later, Stewart won the non-point NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway near Charlotte, N.C. His teammate, Ryan Newman, then won the pole for the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 the next week. Stewart then took the championship point lead in early June after a second-place finish at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. The first point-paying win came the next week when Stewart won at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway.

Stewart went on to notch three more wins while Newman locked down another pole, and all the while the two were completing the most laps of any of their competitors, as the duo is currently ranked 1-2 in most laps completed. Stewart has completed all but 22 of the 9,913 laps available and Newman has only missed 23 laps. Their nearest challenger in this category, David Reutimann, has failed to complete 84 laps.

With the series returning to Phoenix this weekend for the penultimate race on the Sprint Cup schedule, winning is all that really matters, which suits Stewart just fine. With the championship being a match between Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon, Stewart is content to drive his No. 14 Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala SS all out.

All-out is an appropriate way for Stewart to be at Phoenix. The two-time Sprint Cup champion began his professional racing career at Phoenix back in 1993, and has logged more laps there than any other driver. He’s raced and practiced stock cars, Indy cars, USAC Midgets and Silver Crown cars and even Supermodifieds around the venerable 1-mile oval. It’s a self-described West Coast home away from home for the Columbus, Ind., native.

And now in his return trip “home” via Sunday’s Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500k, Stewart aims to finish just one spot higher than he did back in April.

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TONY STEWART, Driver of the No. 14 Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing:

How impressive was Donny Schatz’s Outlaws championship this year?
“Any time you win a national championship, it’s impressive. This is a series where your points are accumulated all year long. It’s not a Chase format. And to go out on the road and run more than 60 races a year like those guys do, it’s a tough, grueling schedule. For him to win the championship four years in a row, and two years in a row for us, is really impressive. I’m really proud of him and Ricky Warner (crew chief) and all the guys on the Armor All/STP Chevy. It’s an awesome way to cap off the season for us.”

What are your thoughts on adding another championship with Levi Jones wrapping up the USAC Sprint car title? And a TSR-affiliated driver, Josh Richards, won the World of Outlaws Dirt Late Model championship last weekend. Tell us about that.
“I don’t know for sure, but I think we probably set a record there being the first organization to win a World of Outlaws Sprint Car championship and a USAC Sprint car championship in the same season and on the same night. That was a pretty cool deal, especially for Josh Richards. We’re not his car owner, but we’re part of his program. To have him win the Late Model championship on the same night, that’s pretty impressive.”

You’ve been a car owner of open-wheel teams for nearly a decade. Did that help make the transition of becoming a car owner in NASCAR that much easier?
“It definitely gave us some insight on what it was going to be like. Obviously, at this caliber, and with the amount of people we have at the Cup level, it was hard to know exactly what it was going to be like. But having that experience of being a car owner in the past definitely got us pointed in the right direction when it came time to make the decision to be a Cup owner.”

Because you’re a driver, do you think the success of your teams is due, in part, because you know what type of driver you need to have and what that driver needs to be successful?
“I think I’ve been around the sport long enough that I’ve seen how it’s not about individuals. It’s about how to put the whole package together. It’s about the right driver with the right crew chief with the right equipment, and if you can do that, a lot of times it leads to success.”

How long have you been racing at Phoenix?
“I started racing there in ’93 when I ran a Silver Crown car. And since then, I’ve run USAC Midgets, Indy cars, Supermodifieds, Nationwide Series cars, and of course, Sprint Cup. So, I’ve logged a bunch of laps there. To think that it all kind of started at Phoenix, I guess you could say it’s the place where my career came full-circle.”

Can you explain how Phoenix differs in the way the car handles in turns one and two as opposed to turns three and four?
“Every type of car that I’ve driven here – from USAC Midgets and Silver Crown cars to Supermodifieds to Indy cars to Nationwide cars and now the Sprint Cup cars – running all those different divisions, the one common variable is the two ends of the track are unique and different from each other. It’s always been a situation where if your car is really good in (turns) three and four, you’re normally a little bit tight in (turns) one and two, and if you get one and two really good, you’re normally a little bit too loose in three and four. You do have to weigh the options and try to find that balance of which end of the track is more important to you. You know you’re not going to be perfect in both ends, and you’ll have to pick one end or the other to get your car really good. I do have a preference, but I don’t tell everybody else that. That’s what having all these years and these laps of experience there does for me. It’s the one secret variable that I try to use to my advantage.”

How did you transition from one type of racing to another?
“It’s more fear than anything that I’m going to have to get a real job if I’m not successful. That’s the great thing about running USAC and being in Indiana where not only did we have winged Sprint cars and non-winged Sprint cars, Midgets, Silver Crown cars, we ran on dirt tracks one night and pavement the next. We ran Modifieds and Late Models. There were just so many things to drive around there that you learned how to adapt, and you learned how not to have a preconceived notion about how a racecar is supposed to feel and drive. You learned to read what the car was telling you as far as what it liked and disliked, and learned how to change your driving style accordingly. Especially at Phoenix, every car we’ve driven there, even though the track’s the same, they all drove different. You just had to adapt to it and learn to read the racecar, instead of thinking this is what the car I ran last night felt like and it’s supposed to feel like this today. It doesn’t work that way.”

Is it safe to say you have Phoenix figured out?
“I’ve definitely spent a lot of time there. Myself and Arie Luyendyk were the two lead test drivers for Firestone when we were in the IRL. We spent a lot of time in Phoenix because the weather is so good out there all year long. We would spend three days out there tire testing and we had two or three of those sessions through the winter. I got to spend a lot of time running around Phoenix. I probably know every line around the track that’s ever been ran and why it’s been ran. It helps when you get in the stock cars or anything you get in when you’re out there. I pretty much know how to get around there.”

Newman and Stewart will be at Knoxville Raceway to take part in the Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals along with Kenny Schrader.  Dirt Late Model stars  Earl Pearson, Jr., of Florida, Matt Aukland of North Dakota, defending champion Tim McCreadie (2008) of New York, and John Duty of Oregon are all entered in this weekend’s sixth annual Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals, proving once again that the $40,000-to-win, $2,500-to-start event draws the best dirt late model drivers in the land, coast-to-coast and border-to-border.

Amongst the eighty (80) pre-entries are and such dirt late model racing stars as Brady Smith (2007) of Wisconsin, Brian Shirley (2006) of Illinois, Scott Bloomquist (2005) of Tennessee, Brian Birkhofer (2004) of Iowa, Steve Francis of Kentucky, Josh Richards of West Virginia, Darrell Lanigan of Kentucky, Rick Eckert of Pennsylvania, Jimmy Owens of Tennessee, Dale McDowell of Georgia, Jimmy Mars of Wisconsin, Vic Coffey of New York, Eric Jacobsen of California, Tommy Elston of Iowa, Shannon Babb of Illinois, Billy Moyer of Arkansas, Darren Miller of Illinois, Jeep Van Wormer of Michigan, and Jeff Aikey of Iowa.

According to Knoxville’s director of racing Ralph Capitani, “Without a doubt, this is the best field we’ve ever assembled for the Late Model Nationals in its history, both from a quality and quantity perspective. If you are a dirt late model fan from anywhere in the country, you will want to be here on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. While the temperatures may be cool, the racing will be red-hot!!”

Joining the 80-car field, for the first time ever, will be the always-exciting International Motor Contest Association (IMCA) modified stock car division for a special 40-car invitational. For more information on the sixth annual Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals, and all of the fan-oriented special events scheduled over the course of the three days and nights, fans are urged to visit www.knoxvilleraceway.com and www.sprintcarhof.com.

The Eldora website reports that as of 2:30 this afternoon, there were 115 cars in the pit area. Below is a shot of Tony’s No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Office Depot/Old Spice/Rocket Chassis/etc. Behind it you can see Josh Richards No. 1. Josh is sponsored in part by Tony Stewart Racing.

Tony Stewart's No. 14 Late Model Rocket

HAVE YOU HAD AN EXCITING DAY SO FAR? “Ah, yes. I had a little bit of a moment off of (Turn) 2 (during practice). I just got loose and I needed about 12 more inches that I didn’t have. But it really wasn’t bad. It was just more cosmetic than anything as far as the paint. It got the right front fender just a little bit, but they’ve already gotten it fixed.”

THERE ARE SEVERAL THAT HAVE SCRAPED THE WALL. IS THERE ANY SURPRISING LACK OF GRIP? “No, that’s what makes this place fun is because it’s not loaded up with a ton of grip. (Turn) 2 has always been a challenge. You guys would know better on the stats side, but the exit of (Turns) 2 and 4 is always tricky. It seems like (Turn) 2 is a little trickier than 4 is. But that’s also where if you can get your car driving good there, you can make up a lot of time.”

CAN YOU EXPLAIN HOW YOU ALWAYS SEEM TO WIN RIGHT AFTER THERE HAS BEEN SOMETHING CONTROVERSIAL? “Oh, that would be perfect if that happened (laughs). If that’s the case we’ll be planning something else next week. No, I don’t know. It’s just coincidence.”

SO I SHOULDN’T BET ON THAT IN LAS VEGAS? “I don’t think so. We’ll see after this week then.”

WOULD YOU RATHER BE OUT ON THE I-10 DRIVING, OR ON THE TRACK WITH FIVE ROOKIE DRIVERS? “Five rookies, for sure (laughter). I’ve been on the 10 freeway and I get nervous. This is one of the few parts of the country that I get nervous on the freeway but they do it every day and they make it and so you can tell they know how to do it. But when you’re not used to being in this much traffic as they have out here, I’d definitely take my chances with five rookies. At least we’re all going the same direction.”

ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT GOING TO VEGAS AND SEEING THE USAC BOYS RUN? “Oh, yeah. It’s really a cool weekend because we get to watch the USAC guys on Wednesday and then the Outlaw guys on Thursday, so I get to see both sides of my Open Wheel team run two days in a row; and then I get to play the rest of the weekend. So I am excited about that. That’s what always makes going to Talladega and Charlotte and some of these other places so much fun is that we do get to see our other programs running. So we’ll get to see all our Chevy teams out there and that will be fun.”

HOW DID THE TEAM DO AT THE CHILI BOWL? “I thought they did a really good job. Tracy (Hines) running second and winning his preliminary I think was awesome; and Levi (Jones) had a great run going. He ran second in his preliminary night was running fifth when for some reason, it just shut off. So I don’t know if it was electrical or fuel or what. But they both ran really well. Josh Richards, who doesn’t run my Midget but once a year gave the best performance he has had. So I was really excited. This is the first year that we’ve been able to bring the new Chevy Midget engine down there.”

DO YOU VIEW THIS AS THE REAL START TO THE SEASON? “Yeah, I do. I think so. This is the first time all year that we get to go out and run and we’re not depending on everybody else around us. So I do. I do feel like this is really the first true test of where everybody is at, and a truer read to the season than just Daytona.”

IS IT SAFE TO SAY IF YOU’RE A FAN AND YOU WATCH CALIFORNIA, LAS VEGAS, AND ATLANTA, YOU’D HAVE A PRETTY GOOD IDEA ABOUT HOW THE EARLY PART OF THE SEASON IS GOING TO GO? “I believe so. I honestly believe you’re right 100 percent on that. It’s a truer test than what Daytona is. You get big groups of wrecks there that you can get caught up in easily and the draft plays such a big role, where here, it’s more about individual performances where who paired up with who and got going.”

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DRAFT AT FONTANA “The draft is important here, but still, when you get to the corner you’re not running flat so the handling of the cars is 100 times more crucial here in making sure that you get your car driving good and you’re not going to see packs of cars drafting and catching a car that’s a single car out there. It seems like once guys get in a clump like that it’s normally the first guy that’s holding the rest of them up and then they start cycling through one at a time.

“So, this is more about individual performances versus Daytona, which is still about individuals, but you still have to have guys around that dictate what your deal is.”

IF THEY PUT RESTRICTOR PLATES ON THE CARS HERE, WOULD THAT MAKE A GOOD SHOW? “I wouldn’t be in favor of it. I don’t think it’s a good idea. I don’t think the speeds are in a range where it’s uncomfortable for any of us or unsafe for any of us. I don’t know what the need would be to put them on for here.”

NOT FOR SPEED, BUT JUST TO BUNCH THE CARS UP FOR PEOPLE IN THE STANDS? “That wouldn’t work. Your idea and the path you’re going down is right, but it wouldn’t work that way because the handling is so crucial.

“If you got to where you lost momentum in the corner because you slipped a little bit, it would hurt it so bad that you wouldn’t be able to recover as quick as you can with an open motor. So it would almost work the opposite.”

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER YOUR MOST DARING MANEUVER ON THE TRACK? “Oh, I don’t know. I’d say probably it’s been at any of the restrictor plate races where you had to go and switch two lanes at one time and slot in between a couple of cars. That’s always probably the toughest thing we do. I’ve been doing this 28 years and I don’t know that there is one particular moment. I don’t know. I still think it’s that first win when we won at Richmond. It seemed like after eight or 10 laps, the second line was where the groove was and we were able to stay on the bottom and just kind of pick away and pass guys like Dale Sr. and Bobby Labonte and Jeff Burton and Mark Martin. Those were guys that we raced with all day and had to just kick our way by. You couldn’t just do it in one lap. You were taking five or six laps to clear a car and that is probably one of the biggest races for us.”

WHEN YOU TURNED 16, WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? “Ha, ha, I still wasn’t driving at the age of 16. My parents wouldn’t even let me. My first vehicle was a ’79 Plymouth Valarie with a slant six, with wore out front shocks on it that was used as a mail car (laughter). It was one of our close family friends, it was his father’s mail car that he used. It was white with a blue vinyl top. And about every hour and a half you drove, you had to put a quart of oil in it. It was awesome. Good times. Trust me, I was just happy to have a car and get off the bike.”

HOW DO YOU LIKE BEING BACK WITH THE BOWTIE? “Love it. It’s a good homecoming for sure. I’m definitely glad to be back. It’s fun working with the Hendrick organization. Their engine package with Chevrolet has been awesome for years. It’s nice to finally get to see it. When you’ve raced against them for so long, you want to see what they’ve got and now we’re in a situation where we can finally see what all the Hendrick guys have had for so long and why they’re so happy about it.”

CAN YOU GET A SNAPSHOT OF WHERE THE TEAMS ARE FROM THIS ONE PRACTICE SESSION? “At least from our side, we were happy with our car and the lap times we were running in race trim so far. But I think 24 hours from now and after we run that second session, we’re going to have better idea of what we have at this point because you don’t know who was in qualifying trim the whole session or who was in race trim and when they switched. So it’s kind of hard to get a gauge on it right now.”