Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS, is a 16-year veteran of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but his racing roots aren’t in stock cars, they’re in open-wheel machines, the pinnacle of which is the Indianapolis 500.
Stewart made a name for himself in the rough-and-tumble world of the United States Auto Club (USAC), home to numerous open-wheel divisions that has served as a ladder system to the Indianapolis 500 for decades. Stewart has four USAC championships, including what at the time was an unprecedented win of USAC’s “Triple Crown.”
USAC’s top-three national touring divisions are Midget, Sprint and Silver Crown. After winning the Midget title in 1994 and finishing 10th and sixth in the Sprint and Silver Crown divisions, respectively, Stewart went out and set a new standard of excellence in 1995 by winning all three divisions. No driver had ever won the Sprint, Midget and Silver Crown championships – divisions that run three very different types of racecars which compete on both asphalt and dirt – in a single season until Stewart.
That success led Stewart to earn a ride in the IndyCar Series in 1996. He made the most of it by winning the series championship in 1997, sowing the seeds of Stewart’s current NASCAR success, which includes three Sprint Cup championships and 48 career wins.
But before Stewart left the open cockpits of Indy cars for the tin tops of stock cars, the Indianapolis 500 was his must-have race. Even after making three Indy 500 starts with a best finish of fifth in 1997, the pull of Indy beckoned Stewart so strongly that he continued to race in the Indianapolis 500 as a Sprint Cup rookie in 1999. That meant competing in two of the longest and most prestigious races in a single day, for after racing 500 miles around Indy’s 2.5-mile oval, Stewart would jet to Charlotte, North Carolina, to race in the Coca-Cola 600, a 400-lap marathon around the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The grueling, one-day trek known as “Double Duty” saw Stewart become the first driver to complete both races in the same day, finishing ninth and fourth, respectively, and racing a total of 1,090 miles. Stewart repeated this feat in 2001, when he drove for Chip Ganassi at Indy and Joe Gibbs at Charlotte. Stewart bettered his mark from 1999 by finishing on the lead lap in sixth before jetting off to Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600. He improved that finish as well, coming home third in the 600-miler. Stewart completed all 1,100 miles – breaking his record for most racing miles driven in one day.
Few have attempted the Double. John Andretti was the first to do it 1994, finishing 10th at Indy and 36th at Charlotte. Robby Gordon has made five attempts at the Double, with his best run coming in 2002 when he finished eighth at Indy and 16th at Charlotte. Neither driver completed all the laps, with Gordon falling just one lap short of completing all 1,100 miles in 2002. Gordon’s last attempt at the Double came in 2004, and it took 10 years for another driver to take a stab at running both races in a single day.
That driver is Kurt Busch, Stewart’s teammate at Stewart-Haas Racing, the Sprint Cup Series team Stewart co-owns with Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation, the largest CNC machine tool builder in the western world.
Busch has already qualified for this year’s Indy 500. He’ll start 12th in the 98th running of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing. On Thursday night, he’ll qualify his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS for the Coca-Cola 600.
Stewart is more than just an interested spectator in his teammate’s Sunday drive. He has a vested interest in Busch’s success, particularly in the Coca-Cola 600, the Sprint Cup Series’ longest race. But Stewart the fan – and former Indy car driver – has a keen interest in Busch’s Indy 500 effort being that he’s a two-time Double Duty participant.
Stewart will watch the Indy 500 on TV from beginning to end before joining Busch at 6 p.m. EDT in the Coca-Cola 600. Stewart will appreciate all that Busch will have done to make it to Charlotte before switching gears and viewing Busch as one of the 42 other drivers he and his Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevy must beat to earn his first Coca-Cola 600 victory.
A win on Sunday night would be Stewart’s second at Charlotte, as the recently-turned 43-year-old scored his first Charlotte victory in October 2003 in the track’s 500-mile Sprint Cup race. This year’s Coca-Cola 600 will mark Stewart’s 30th Sprint Cup start at Charlotte, where in his 29 previous starts he has led 701 laps while scoring six top-fives and 13 top-10s.
After keeping his eyes on Indy, Stewart will set his sights on Charlotte, where instead of milk, Coke is it.
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