RICH GLICKSTEIN/THE STATE
Tony Stewart shares a laugh with USC junior Stewart Blanchard. As part of a class assignment that involved promotions for Darlington Raceway, Blanchard suggested Stewart spend a day picking up first- and second-graders in a No. 40 Home Depot bus.
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Head of the class
The recipient of many lectures, Tony Stewart finally gives one — to a USC class
By DAVID NEWTON
Senior Writer
“All right, everybody straighten up,” Tony Stewart said, startling the classroom full of college students as he entered room 1015 in the bowels of Carolina Coliseum.
And with that, SPTE Class 490 was in session.
Yes, Nextel Cup’s so-proclaimed bad boy came to the University of South Carolina to teach the future of America a thing or two about how NASCAR works.
He spent an hour Tuesday taking questions from about 30 students in a NASCAR marketing course that will apply toward their degrees in sports and entertainment management.
He discussed everything from punching a photographer at Indianapolis during his 2002 title run to hanging out with Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson in his hauler in Bristol, Tenn. — all things promising, young NASCAR public-relations directors should know.
“Wait until I tell my mother what I did today,” Stewart said of his visit. “She will not believe it.”
Tony the Teacher never made it past high school.
“I wasn’t a straight-A student by any means,” said Stewart, who is fifth in the points standings heading to Texas this weekend. “I hated school.”
But Stewart loved his role as guest lecturer. Cathy Elliott, the public-relations director at Darlington Raceway, made the invitation after learning he would be the guest driver for the track’s Winner’s Circle news conference that day.
Elliott, one of several Darlington staff members who help teach the course, made Stewart part of a class project in which students took her budget of $200,000 and devised a campaign for the May 7 race at Darlington, NASCAR’s oldest superspeedway.
Stewart Blanchard, a 21-year-old junior from Charleston, decided Stewart should spend a day picking up first- and second-graders in a No. 20 Home Depot bus.
“We thought NASCAR needs the younger generation to help keep it going,’’ Blanchard said.
Scott Eddins decided Stewart should spend six hours in the ticket office at Darlington Raceway selling tickets.
“You guys are flunking this course something awful,” Stewart jokingly told them.
Stewart offered insight on life as a driver, car owner and track owner. (He owns Eldora Speedway, a dirt track in Ohio.)
But mostly he poked fun at himself, saying the class probably learned more the past two weeks during visits from Ray Evernham, president and CEO of Evernham Motorsports, and Jim Hunter, NASCAR’s vice president for corporate communications.
“Needless to say, this is the most nerve-wracking thing I will do all week,” Stewart said.
And with that, the question-and-answer session began:
Student: “What happened to your tires this past weekend at Martinsville?”
Stewart: “Basically, the guy that put the tire on didn’t get it tight all the way. He’s probably not having a good week at the shop right now.”
Student: What would a typical week be like?
Stewart: There just is no set schedule with our series. This was a weird week. An ex-girlfriend’s sister’s husband’s grandfather passed away over the weekend, and I flew his family to Pennsylvania. I have no idea what I’m doing next week after Sunday. If we get one day a week off, it’s a good week. If we get two days a week off, we call that a vacation.
Student: What were some of your struggles as a driver coming up?
Stewart: Probably financial support more than anything. I grew up in a family that, when I was a 10-year old, well before I knew what a house mortgage was, our family had mortgaged the house so we could race go-karts. There’s no (financial) return in go-kart racing. You race for trophies and not prize money.
I constantly have parents come up to me and say my son races go-karts and he wants to be a NASCAR star one day — what do I do? It’s kind of like the business ladder. You don’t just jump from the mailroom and all of a sudden put on a suit and tie and go to the top of the ladder.
Student: What is your favorite track?
Stewart: Why? Did you think I was going to say Darlington? My favorite track is probably Richmond. Mainly for the reason it’s still short enough that you have that short-track feel where you’re not worried about aerodynamics and body shapes, and you don’t have to worry about those chain-reaction crashes very much.
Student: And your least favorite?
Stewart: Do I have to have a least favorite? If I say a least-favorite track and somebody in the media gets a’hold of it, then when I get to that track there’ll be 100,000 booing me.
Student: Then the most challenging track?
Stewart: Darlington is by far the most challenging, for sure ... Those black marks (on the wall), when they say it’s ‘Too Tough to Tame,’ it’s not just some cute little catchy slogan they came up with. It’s the real deal.
Student: A lot of people see the glamour side of NASCAR drivers. What’s not the glamour side?
Stewart: When some kid wants me to drive a school bus. To be honest, driving the car is probably 10 percent of my job; the other 90 percent is divided between NASCAR obligations, sponsor obligations, Winner’s Circle appearances, testing. Everybody thinks we show up Thursday night, stay in our big motor homes and we race Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and then we go to the islands for four days and then show up at the next race. I wish it was that easy.
Student: Was your championship run in 2002 harder than living up to the expectations in 2003?
Stewart: The first championship at each step is probably the hardest because you don’t know for sure what it takes to win it. That year I was having a lot of issues. That was the year I punched a reporter at Indy.
In 2003 the advantage we had was we knew what it took to win a championship. I only got in half as much trouble that year with half the drama, but the performance wasn’t there. They changed the rules packages. We switched from Pontiacs to Chevrolet, so it was a totally different body style than we were used to. When I say it’s hard to repeat, it is hard.
Student: What are some of your hobbies that have nothing to with racing?
Stewart: I started hunting a couple of years ago, which, just so you girls don’t think I’m a mass murderer out in the woods, I do more sleeping than anything when I get out there. ... I shot one deer and no turkeys in the two years I’ve hunted. I watch “Bambi” and I cry.
I like to fish. Fish, I have no problems ripping their lips off. I like four-wheelers. I like playing video games. ... I’m a big Texas Hold ’em player. ... Think of what you did when you were 15. That’s basically what I do.
Student: When you go to the track and see thousands of people with your gear and number, how does that make you feel?”
Stewart: It’s cool. ... The high school I went to is literally three-quarters of a mile from my house. At the corner where the high school is there is a doughnut shop. I used to get a Coke and a dozen doughnut holes every day for lunch because it was exactly $2, and that’s all I got for lunch.
I stopped at the stoplight at 2 in the morning one night, and there’s no traffic, and for some reason the light wouldn’t change. I looked over, and the same Coke machine had my picture on it. That was the day I realized, ‘Hey, I’m not just the same guy that shows up and wears jeans and tennis shoes all the time.’ Which basically means I was lucky.
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