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Dirt devils
NASCAR at Sharon Speedway
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NASCAR drivers Tony Stewart, Dave Blaney and Kasey Kahne were at Sharon Speedway Tuesday, July 7, 2009 as part of the first Lou Blaney Memorial Classic.
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Tony Stewart signs autographs for fans at Sharon Speedway on Tuesday evening.
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Kasey Kahne races past bleachers full of fans during an early heat race at Sharon Speedway on Tuesday evening.
Stewart, Kahne gather for Blaney event
By JOHN BASSETTI
Vindicator SPORTS STAFF
HARTFORD — When Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne are side-by-side, it’s usually in a NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
A recent example would have been the Toyota/SaveMart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, where Kahne led the final 38 laps but had to stave off a final charge from Stewart on an overtime finish.
Yet the pair — Stewart a two-time NASCAR champion and Kahne a potential NASCAR champion — sat shoulder-to-shoulder during a question-and-answer session at Sharon Speedway Tuesday afternoon.
Dave Blaney and his brother, Dale, along with modified legend Jack Johnson, also sat nearby, prior to their participation in the inaugural Lou Blaney Memorial Classic, a 410 Sprint race.
Stewart, who continues as the Sprint Cup points leader, and Kahne, the No. 12-ranked driver, offered some perspective on their 2009 seasons.
“Crazy,” is the way Stewart described the finish to Saturday’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, a race he won despite a crunching multiple-crash last lap.
“Everybody’s going for it at the end,” Stewart said of bumping Kyle Busch before their cars tangled again to send Busch into a wall.
“It isn’t something new,” Stewart said of restrictor-plate races. “The Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough crash in the first TV race [the 1979 Daytona 500] was a very similar situation. It’s not something that’s all of the sudden new in our sport. It’s been going on for years on superspeedways like that.”
Stewart sailed through for his second points win of the season.
Kahne was also involved in the mix-up, but completed the 160-lap race in 15th place.
“Everybody goes for it,” Kahne said of restrictor-plate endings. “With drafting and how you can get runs on other cars, you’re going to have that. It’s part of Talladega, it’s part of Daytona where, coming down to the end, people bump.
“It’s part of that type of racing and we ended up getting under Kyle’s car and drove right through him, pretty much. That was the way our race finished. We still finished decently and got pretty good points.”
Kahne moved ahead of Mark Martin and behind No. 11 Juan Pablo Montoya in the Sprint Cup Series points standings.
“We’re sitting in a pretty good spot right now,” Kahne said. “I’d say, in the last seven, eight weeks, we’ve been in the top 10. Whether we finish there is another story, but we’ve been there every week, so I feel like we’ve got great cars and the team has been awesome. We have to keep build on that and figure out how to make the Chase.”
Kahne and Stewart, who have raced before at Sharon Speedway, were excited to be part of the night, which honored the Blaneys’ father.
“I heard stories of Lou being one of the best on the ‘cushion’ [dirt],” Kahne said.
Stewart said Sharon Speedway fans got a double treat to watch drivers who excel at both the Sprint Cup level and below.
“We’re passionate for short-track, especially dirt that we grew up on,” he said. “It’s a chance for people who don’t come to Cup races on weekends to come out and see their heroes up close and it gives us a night to be that much closer to them.”
Stewart, whose other points race win was the Pocono 500 on June 7, was asked about his old role as driver and his new status as driver/team co-owner.
“There’s not much difference, other than I can be late for team meetings and not get yelled at like I used to last year.”
Joking aside, the Stewart-Haas team relies on good people.
“It’s been a great year. Anytime you make a big change like we did is an unknown variable and it could go either really good or really bad. We’ve been fortunate that it’s gone well.”
After 10 years with Joe Gibbs Racing, Stewart-Haas emerged after an overhaul.
“Our deal is a little different than the situations for Robbie Gordon and Michael Waltrip and some guys who have started from square one,” Stewart said. “We were able to come into an existing organization and just have to add some people as needed and that’s been the difference.”
Stewart was not without his sarcastic rebuttals to questions.
He answered one member of the media who asked about a rivalry between non-NASCAR teams belonging to Stewart and Kahne.
“You guys want to make a big rivalry out of nothing.”
The questioner interjected, innocently: “Every great story has a hero and a villain,” to which Stewart responded: “Every great story’s got a great writer and that’s what we’re losing — great writers, so they try to come up with an angle.”
Stewart, however, toned it down to say: “We love giving back to short-track racing. Whether it’s our World of Outlaw teams or USAC teams, we’ve always been supportive of each other.”
Stewart was asked about the million dollars he won in his non-points All-Star Challenge on May 16.
“I tried to get myself out of debt, but I didn’t come close. I made a dent in it.”
bassetti@vindy.com