Does Stewart win more when he’s mad?

Tony Stewart won the Watkins Glen race last season when everything was going well. But does he do better when he's angry?

It used to seem like every time Tony Stewart found himself in the midst of a huge controversy, right at the height of the storm brewing around him, he’d do a funny thing: Win.

Stewart almost seemed to thrive off the chaos around him – some of which was self-created by the latest thing he said or did.

But last season, Stewart the calm team owner took over. With no pressure and very little expectations that his upstart Stewart-Haas Racing team would do anything at all, Stewart thrived and began winning races well before his traditional summer heat streak.

So I wondered which scenario helps him drive better: When he’s the mad, me-against-the-world Tony, or the pleasant, calm, jovial Tony?

“I don’t think it matters what’s going on around us, because on both ends of the spectrum, we’ve been able to win,” Stewart said, using his traditional “us” and “we” to describe himself.

Maybe there are really multiple personalities in there.

“I don’t think there’s necessarily one scenario that’s more advantageous than the others,” he continued (with a calm, reasoned demeanor for those who wondered). “We’ve won races when it’s been calm, we’ve won races in the middle of controversy, it doesn’t seem like any of that affects whether we can win or not.”

So is Stewart always the same when he climbs into the seat regardless of what’s happening around him? He seems to think so.

“No matter what’s going on outside the car, it’s not going on inside the car,” he said. “So that’s my chance to block everything out.”

A couple other drivers who have been no strangers to controversy had comments about this topic on Monday as well.

Denny Hamlin: “I’ve been through some really emotional times, even in this past season. But it seems like no matter what, when you strap in, all that stuff goes away and you’re totally focused on driving. So I’m not sold on things outside racing having an effect on on-track performance.”

Kyle Busch: “[Drivers focus] pretty quick, because really, the car’s never done anything wrong to you.  … It’s the personal battles with other racecar drivers that screws me up sometimes. If somebody ran into you and you want to get them back or whatever – that’s the stuff that gets to me. Besides that, the stuff outside? It’s all good.”

Maturing Hamlin doesn’t quite ‘talk @!?*#’

Denny Hamlin ended 2009 in victory lane at Homestead. He says there's a plan to finish 2010 there hoisting the Sprint Cup.

Ask most anyone in the media and they’ll tell you Denny Hamlin has probably made the biggest gains of any driver in the past year in regard to providing good quotes.

Hamlin gets the media game so much now that he tweeted earlier in the day, “This afternoon is media tour. I get to see all my favorite media friends.. Haha. I think they just want me to talk @!?*#.”

So naturally, the very first question out of my mouth was asking Hamlin what kind of @!?*# he had to say.

“Nothing,” he said with a deadpan expression. “Nothing productive. Nothing different.”

Of course, that was far from true.

Hamlin unveiled his championship strategy on Monday afternoon during the Joe Gibbs Racing stop on the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour, and laid out just exactly how he expects to dethrone Jimmie Johnson – and what he did wrong last season.

“Last year, I said I didn’t want to be a contender anymore, I wanted to be a champion,” he said. “We did that, we just didn’t have the reliability to win the championship. I know how to win a championship, now it’s just going to be executing it.”

Step No. 1, obviously, involves beating Johnson. That won’t be easy, but being whooped by the same dude over and over seems to have provided motivation for Hamlin.

“I know how much it fuels me up wanting to be the guy who takes him off his chair and [replaces him] on the pedestal,” Hamlin said. “I don’t think anyone else in the garage wants it worse than I do right now.”

Hamlin was asked if he had learned anything about winning championships while watching Johnson. He nodded, and said he had first-hand experience with some lessons.

“He forced me into a wreck at California,” Hamlin said of the October race at Auto Club Speedway which took him out of title contention. “Not literally, but just mentally. I knew he had the car to beat and there was no way I was going to beat him unless I outdrove him. And I drove over my head and got in a wreck. So he forced me to make a mistake, and that’s what he’s so good at.

“That’s what champions do – they don’t make mistakes, they make others make mistakes.”

But how will Hamlin avoid falling into that trap again?

“Learn from last year,” he said. “That’s all you can do. The patience level has just got to go up a little bit more, every single week.”

By the way, it sounds as if Hamlin fans should expect to show some patience early in the season. The fifth-year driver said he expects to work his way into the season and does not expect to see the No. 11 team “lighting up the track for the first five months of the season.”

Why? Because Hamlin said the team plans to work on things for later in the year, then be in prime form to make a championship run in the fall.

“We want to come to the racetrack with our best stuff when we need to, and I think you’ll see that when the Chase starts,” he said.

At least that’s the plan. So Denny fans, you’ve been warned: Don’t panic if Hamlin gets off to a slow start.

Kyle Busch knows his fan base; has a plan to take down Jimmie Johnson

No one can accuse Kyle Busch of being out of touch with his fans – and haters.

Busch was asked about his fan base during Monday’s Joe Gibbs Racing stop on the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour, and it was clear he knows all about his supporters.

“My biggest fan base is from the people who like the raw racer – they like the guy who wants to go out for wins; he doesn’t settle for the finishes, he doesn’t take losing easily,” Busch said. “The fans that don’t like that are the ones who say I whine too much or I complain or I should live my life better.”

Busch paused briefly, then smiled and said: “I have no problem living my life the way I live it, it’s just that I want to win! There’s no problem with wanting to win. My Monday-through-Thursday is fine.”

There’s hope his Friday-through-Sunday attitude will improve this year, because Busch believes JGR is closing the gap on Hendrick Motorsports.

“We’re right at their heels. We’re biting on them,” he said. “Personnel-wise, we’re really, really close. Technology-wise, we might even be better than Hendrick Motorsports is. Just applying all that is where we’re lacking.”

Speaking of Hendrick, Busch said the best way to improve fan interest would be for Jimmie Johnson – the four-time defending champion – to tank.

“The real interest is going to come from – no offense, Jimmie – seeing Jimmie diminish a little bit and seeing Jeff Gordon rise for the ‘Drive for Five’ and seeing Dale Earnhardt Jr. being able to win races again and see myself being able to win races on a regular basis and contend for the championship,” Busch said. “It takes all those things…to spike the interest, rather than seeing the same old guy kick our butt every week.”

Busch was asked exactly how he plans on stopping the butt-kicking.

“Uh, steal Chad Knaus [and] lock him up somewhere?” he said.

Newman says his dad will no longer spot

The voice of Ryan Newman’s father will no longer be the one in the driver’s ear during NASCAR races.

Greg Newman will not be on the spotter’s stand for his son this year, the driver said Monday afternoon on the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour. Jimmy Kitchens is now the spotter for the No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing team.

“It’s tough,” the younger Newman said. “It was very difficult at times for my dad and I to have a father-son relationship at the racetrack versus a competitive relationship at the racetrack. You don’t really understand that until you work with family in a very, very stressful position as it was with him.”

Newman said there were “a multitude of reasons” for the breakup of their competitive relationship, first calling it a firing then backtracking and saying it was “more of a mutual decision.”

“Ultimately, my dad has a done a great job as a spotter and I look forward to him being a spotter in the capacities he enjoys,” Newman said.

Here we go!

There’s no racing today, but the offseason is officially over – at least in the minds of 200-plus reporters who embark on the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour, a three-and-a-half day marathon of interviews where every driver talks about how optimistic they are for the upcoming season.

The trick is to sift through all the talk to try and get hints as to who will make the Chase and who could be primed for a fall.

I’ll have my predictions at the end of the week, but for now, I’m all ears.

Today’s schedule has us talking with Stewart-Haas Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and Penske Racing.

First up: Tony Stewart and Co. Wonder if he’ll be in a good mood or set the tone for the whole media tour by being a grouch?

Is Dale Earnhardt Jr. shooting too high?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he'd be disappointed if he didn't win at least three races this year. Is he setting his sights too high?

Looking through the transcripts from the first day of the Preseason Thunder fan fest in Daytona, most people didn’t say anything too earth-shattering.

Drivers said they’re excited for the season. Drivers said they’re anxious to get back on the track.

In other words, pretty much the usual stuff.

Leave it to Dale Earnhardt Jr. to make the most interesting comment of the evening.

Earnhardt Jr., asked to detail his goals for this year, said: “Well, our goal is to win as many races as we can, win the championship, challenge for the championship. I’d like to win — I think anything less than three races this year I’d be a little bit disappointed.”

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I’m all for being optimistic about the season, but talk about putting pressure on yourself.

Earnhardt Jr. has won three races in the last five seasons combined. He finished 25th in points last year and, as Junior fans know all too well, did not win.

The guy already has a ton of pressure on himself, particularly from the media who view his tenure at Hendrick Motorsports as a disappointment so far and the fans who expect their favorite driver to be running up front and contending like he used to in years like 2004.

So if you’re Earnhardt Jr., why not set your sights a little lower (at least publicly) and say, “Hey, let’s start with just making the Chase again and winning a race, and then we’ll go from there?”

Of course, that would be taking a page out of the Mark Martin book. And one main reason Earnhardt Jr. fans love him so much is because he’s almost always completely honest and bares his soul for everyone to see.

I’ve often felt like some interviews with Earnhardt Jr. can turn into a session on the therapist’s couch, where the sport’s most popular driver decides to let the whole world into his mind.

So if Earnhardt Jr. says he expects to win at least three races this year, that’s his honest answer. He’s that optimistic about 2010, which should be a good sign for not only his fans, but an entire sport that would benefit from its superstar driver winning races again.

Still, after all the letdowns from the past few years, I hope Earnhardt Jr. isn’t setting himself up for disappointment again.

This blog’s for you

I'm looking forward to getting back in the media center for more moments like these, with Mike Hembree (center), Thomas "T-Bone" Pope (red shirt, rear) and Al Pearce (right)

When I was hired by NASCAR Scene in 2007, it felt like I had won the lottery.

At the time, I was a backup motorsports writer for a pair of newspapers in Southern California whose main duty was covering high schools.

Largely anonymous to the NASCAR garage (a notable exchange with Tony Stewart in 2006 ended with him responding to one of my unfavorable questions with, “Who are you?”), Scene boss Jeff Owens took a huge chance on me and brought me to Charlotte despite my lack of connections and full-time racing beat experience.

The three seasons I spent at Scene were probably the best of my life. It really was my dream job: Traveling to races all over the country, having some amazing adventures (flying with the Blue Angels, riding in a sand car with Kyle Busch in the Nevada desert, go-kart racing against Jeff Gordon) and starting to establish a voice in a sport for which I had a true passion.

So you can imagine how tough it was when I was told I wasn’t part of the future plans at SceneDaily.com or NASCAR Illustrated, which was Scene‘s sister magazine. I had planned to be there for a long, long time, and now it was suddenly over.

I hit the unemployment line along with 17 other former co-workers and wondered if that was the end of the dream.

Fortunately, it wasn’t. A company that specializes in sports blogs has hired me to start a NASCAR blog (not this one, but an actual professionally produced one that will debut before Daytona Speedweeks…more specifics at a later date).

I’ll still be able to travel to many races and participate in tweet-ups with many of you, which became my favorite part of the race weekends after I started doing them just before the Chase last season.

Because of so many of you and your widespread support, I was able to find a new job very quickly. But my future success will also depend largely on you. If you come to my new site, those clicks will help keep me in the game. And I’ll try to return the favor by writing stuff that’s relevant and interesting to you, along with the tweets and pictures that I hope provide a different look at the sport.

It’s going to be a big, exciting challenge, and I can’t wait.

But I don’t start yet. It will take some time to build the new blog. Meanwhile, I can’t let the NASCAR Preseason Media Tour go on without chiming in with my take on things.

That’s why I’m starting this temporary blog, just for the media tour (Jan 18-21). Obviously, I’m not going to get paid a dime for this, but I wanted to do something to show I appreciate the amazing response I’ve gotten from so many of you. I wish everyone could experience the outpouring of support I received when I got the bad news about my job.

So check back here for regular updates once things get going. I’ll also try to post some pictures and maybe even videos from the tour!

Thanks again for helping me get through a rough time, and please keep my former co-workers in mind for other jobs you may hear about. Contact me at gluckj@aol.com and I can put you in touch with any of them. They are truly talented people!

Take care,

Jeff