Tony Stewart Progressive Rock

Tony Stewart is a fan of progressive rock, be it of the powerhouse band “Kansas” that was formed in Topeka in the early 1970s, to the rock that was unearthed at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City back in 2012 to make way for progressive banking.

Stewart, whose iPod is as eclectic as his racing resume, has earned 48 career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins, and they’ve come at every type of track on the NASCAR schedule. Intermediate tracks. Short tracks. High-banked tracks. Flat tracks. Superspeedways. Road courses. Name it and Stewart has won on it, including the two tracks that also recently incorporated progressive banking – Homestead-Miami Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In fact, two of Stewart’s last four Sprint Cup victories have come at progressively-banked tracks – 2011 at Homestead-Miami Speedway and 2013 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Kansas joined the band of progressively-banked tracks in October 2012, with the D-shaped oval jettisoning its constant, 15 degrees of banking in its turns to progressive banking of 17 to 20 degrees. A new coat of asphalt covered the reconfigured surface, which has seen only three Sprint Cup races – October 2012, April 2013 and October 2013.

Stewart, however, has only participated in two of those races. He was absent from last October’s race as he recovered from a broken right leg sustained in a sprint car accident that forced him out of his signature No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet for the final 15 races of the 2013 Sprint Cup season.

In his first race at Kansas’ reconfigured layout in October 2012, Stewart finished fifth. In his second and most recent race at Kansas in April 2013, he finished 21st. That’s the relevant history as far as Stewart is concerned, because his two wins (2006 and 2009), five top-fives, eight top-10s and 152 laps led in 13 previous Sprint Cup starts came on a surface that no longer exists.

It’s still a relatively new ballgame, especially for Stewart, who has one fewer race on the new pavement than the majority of his Sprint Cup counterparts.

New has been the theme for Stewart in 2014, as he came into the season with a new crew chief in Chad Johnston and new teammates in Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch. Also new for Stewart, and for the rest of the Sprint Cup garage, were new rules in 2014 where the minimum ride height was eliminated, side skirts were reduced to a four-inch minimum ground clearance, and the rear spoiler height was increased to eight inches.

It all means there’s a lot of newness at Kansas, exemplified by the track’s new slot on the Sprint Cup schedule – Saturday night of Mother’s Day weekend.

The 5-hour Energy 400 is the same distance it’s always been – 267 laps around the 1.5-mile oval – but now it incorporates a level of difficulty not seen before as drivers and teams must build a chassis setup with the adjustability necessary to go from the expected 80-degree heat of the afternoon to the forecasted 50-degree nighttime temperature. Teams do this already at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth and Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, and the methodology utilized at those venues will now be applied to Kansas.

It’ll take some progressive thinking to find the proper setup to navigate Kansas’ progressive banking. But Stewart’s vast experience coupled with his ability to successfully navigate almost any kind of racing surface in nearly every kind of car in a career that has spanned more than three decades makes Kansas’ newness old hat for Stewart.

TSC PR