So, Tony Stewart has purchased the All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Car Series. Shocked? You shouldn’t be. It is just the newest investment in the Tony Stewart Retirement Plan. There’s a method to Stewart’s dirt-track madness, and grassroots racing is far better for it. And it almost certainly will not finish with the All Stars.
Take into account this: Although the 2015 Chili Bowl midget racing finale didn’t take place until Saturday, January 17, Tony Stewart showed up the Monday just before. By Tuesday he was producing recommendations about preparation of the small indoor dirt track, by Wednesday he was on the radio giving directions to the track crew, and by Friday he was driving the tractor that was turning over the surface with a disc harrow.
“Tony is gonna personal this place,” stated one push-truck driver, and those around him quietly agreed. Soon after all, the 2 founders of the Chili Bowl, Emmett Hahn and Lanny Edwards, have been at it since 1987, and each lengthy ago passed the AARP eligibility age.
Stewart currently owns Eldora Speedway, purchased from legendary founder Earl Baltes, famous for his baleful pet quote, normally issued when looking upon the crowd of his often sold-out track: “If I coulda sold one particular far more hot dog, I may well have broke even.” Stewart, along with fellow NASCAR personalities Kenny Wallace and Ken Schrader, owns small Macon Speedway in Illinois. In 2006, he purchased into Paducah International Raceway in Kentucky, a beautiful dirt track that was struggling till Stewart and co-owners Schrader and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. stepped in. He owns Custom Operates, a business that makes R/C-controlled sprint automobiles.
And below Tony Stewart Racing, a single of his 12 companies, he owns one entry in the USAC Sprint Automobile division, one entry in the USAC Silver Crown Series, and 2 entries in the Planet of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. In WoO, TSR fields the No. 15 car for 6-time and present champion Donny Schatz and the No. 11 sprint automobile for 20-time series champion Steve Kinser.
Stewart’s developing dirt-track empire will hold him lots busy as soon as he decides to park the No. 14 Chevrolet for very good.
2 years ago, we asked Stewart why he bought Kinser’s group, understanding The King was preparing to retire from complete-time racing in 2014. “Because he’s the greatest champion we’ve ever had in sprint-automobile racing, and he deserves to go out on his personal terms, without worrying about sponsorship and paying the bills.” Which is precisely what occurred, as Kinser will run only a partial schedule in 2015.
Yes, Tony Stewart races in NASCAR. But he just cannot bring himself to abandon his roots in Indiana dirt-track racing.
Which brings us to Stewart’s buy of the All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Car Series. The series is billed as “one of the oldest traveling sprint-auto organizations,” and it is, but it remains a distant second to the Planet of Outlaws, which was founded in 1978 by the late Ted Johnson to try to organize all the traveling sprint-car drivers and teams who migrated, like gypsies, from 1 unsanctioned occasion to yet another.
The WoO, beneath Johnson’s iron hand, promptly became the dominant sprint-car series. The All Stars have constantly battled regional sprint-car series, such as the Renegade series, which Stewart has already eliminated by bringing the Renegades in below the All Star banner.
The WoO has fought off threats ahead of, most notably the USA Sprint Auto Series and the National Sprint Tour. But with Tony Stewart behind the All Stars, we suspect there is considerably nervousness at the WoO planet headquarters in Concord, North Carolina, also property of the Planet of Outlaws late-model series.
So what will Tony Stewart do with the All Stars? Will he pull his driver Donny Schatz from the WoO and send him out on the All Stars circuit? Will Steve Kinser reserve his rare appearances for All Stars events?
No. 48 driven by Danny Dietrich competing in the All Star Circuit of Champions series.
We will know soon. The All Stars season begins at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Florida, with 3 shows on February 5–7. Then the series moves a tiny east to Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Florida, to race February 11 and 12.
Or will they? The Bubba Raceway Park date is solid considering that Stewart and track owner and radio talk-show host Bubba “The Love Sponge” Clem are greatest friends, and Stewart sponsors Bubba’s sprint-auto-racing son, Tyler. But as for Volusia Speedway Park—it’s owned by the Planet Racing Group, which also owns the Planet of Outlaws. Do they truly want to market a series that all of a sudden may turn out to be a main rival?
Stewart stated at the ongoing NASCAR Media Tour that it will be a even though just before he returns to the seat of a sprint vehicle, as he’s nonetheless recovering from the severely broken leg suffered in a sprint-vehicle crash in 2013, as well as from the death of young sprint-auto driver Kevin Ward, Jr., killed when he was hit by Stewart’s sprint auto in 2014.
That Stewart desires to enhance his dirt-track racing portfolio surprises no 1, though if he was going to get a series, a lot of of us suspected it might be the American Sprint Car Series, which has pointedly positioned itself one particular rung down the ladder from the World of Outlaws and has backing from Lucas Oil. ASCS just happens to have been founded by Emmett Hahn of Chili Bowl fame. But let’s face it: There’s a great likelihood Tony Stewart isn’t through constructing his dirt castle.
Back to the scene at the Chili Bowl: Stewart had another leg operation a handful of weeks prior to the race, and he walks with a limp. Except, some of us noticed, when anything occurred on the track at the Chili Bowl that needed Stewart’s instant focus, and he’d stride off, no limp evident. That’s how Stewart feels about dirt-track racing—and why the All Star Circuit of Champions may possibly be in for a large season.
Tony Stewart Just Purchased a Dirt-Track Sprint-Car Racing Series—Here’s Why He Did It
