Tony Stewart: The Art of Racing in a Cuisinart

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In: NASCAR Cup Series News

An extremely powerful 800-watt motor that pulses, stirs, mixes, purees and chops. It can even slice, shred and process a variety of ingredients – all in record time. It’s big, it’s powerful and it’s easy.

Those are just a few attributes of a Cuisinart food processor that actually has several applications. The general idea, though, is to be able to throw together several ingredients and create one fabulous meal.

It’s really not all that different from a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. But instead of selling points like mixing, stirring and shredding, the features include bumping, banging and sliding. Like several ingredients being mixed together in a Cuisinart, 43 drivers are tossed together with the desired outcome being an entertaining race. And just like a Cuisinart, the results are nothing short of amazing.

With 15 years of experience at Martinsville, Tony Stewart knows a thing or two about the art of racing in NASCAR’s version of a Cuisinart.

Right from the start, something has seemingly always clicked for Stewart at Martinsville. While his first finish at the paperclip-shaped .526-mile track was a 20th-place effort in April 1999, Stewart started that particular race weekend by scoring his first career Sprint Cup pole. A little more than a year later he would go on to win what would be the first of his three victories at Martinsville, a race that he also started from the pole and led 179 laps en route to victory lane.

Although in recent years a race at Martinsville has typically been a tale of two drivers – Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin, Stewart’s record at the 66-year-old speedway is none too shabby. In addition to his three wins and three poles, Stewart’s stats include nine top-five and 15 top-10 finishes. He only has one DNF (Did Not Finish) in 28 career Sprint Cup starts which features a lap completion rate of 96.1 percent and a total of 1,208 laps led. And when it comes to qualifying, Stewart still owns the track record of 19.306 seconds at 98.804 mph – a feat he accomplished in October 2005.

For the second consecutive race, Stewart will pilot the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing when cars hit the southern Virginia short track. The venerable facility has seen every generation of NASCAR stock car, and Sunday’s STP Gas Booster 500 marks the track’s first visit by the sixth-generation (Gen-6) car. Stewart, a student of the sport who appreciates all racing history, wants to make his sure it’s his Gen-6 car occupying Martinsville’s victory lane.

Getting there, however, will be a chore, as it always is at Martinsville. Stewart, a veteran of more than 13,000 racing laps at Martinsville, knows this well. He’s tasted success and has mastered the art of racing in a Cuisinart.

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Speedway Digest Staff
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