Tony Stewart’s garage is a dream for racing fanatics
Indiana native Tony Stewart spent 18 years of his career in NASCAR. He collected three championship winning cars along the way and 49 race wins. Before his shot on pavement, Stewart circled dirt tracks and bulling asphalt tracks in open wheel machines.
Watch the Tony Stewart car collection video below.
Throughout his career, he’s saved a bulk of history. It all sits in Tony Stewart’s car collection.
Recently, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart sat down for an interview. As a bonus, Tony Stewart gave Jeff Gordon a tour of his car collection, a racing enthusiasts dream garage.
It’s race car after race car. Tony Stewart’s garage is loaded with race-ready NASCAR, Indycar and dirt track cars.
All three NASCAR championship cars are on display, IROC championship car, Indycar championship car and the triple crown championship machines are all saved.
Tony Stewart on dirt track racing
Stewart’s first sprint car win with the World of Outlaws came in a car he owned himself. That is stored safely in the garage. Along with multiple championship winning cars for his driver Donny Schatz as well as his former driver Steve Kinser.
“Steve Kinser drove for me. I wanted to have something to show everybody, he did actually driver for me,” Stewart says.
So, he saved an entire race car driven by Kinser.
“Of all the cars I’ve driven in my career, literally you can go from an Indycar to the Cup car. And that’s polar opposite ends of the spectrum. The winged sprint car falls right in the middle of all that,” Stewart said of dirt track racing.
“It’s not the hardest car to drive. But, it’s the hardest car to be really good and really fast in,” Tony Stewart stated as he pointed to the machine which granted his first sprint car win.
Tony Stewart Garage – Bubble wrapped
Many of the cars come in the shop are fitted with plastic bubbles around them. The covers don’t touch the cars and it keeps dust off the machines.
Cars in bubbles include the championship winning Iroc car, driven by Stewart. Multiple Corvettes also sit under bubbles.
“When I won my first Brickyard 400, I bought both the pace cars. I gave one to my crew chief Greg Zipadelli and kept the one that we rode around in the back of, after the race,” Stewart added.
Other notables include the 14th Camaro off the line in 2010. That was after 8 years that Chevrolet didn’t build Camaros.
He also has the 14th 2014 Stringray that came off the line. That was the first year of the C7.
“Now, we’re buying Fords,” Stewart said.
Recently, Ford delivered a handful of supercars to the Ford drivers like Joey Logano and at the time, Kurt Busch.
“Kurt Busch and the fancy guys got those [GT 500’s]. I got the Raptor. I got the pickup instead.”
Tony Stewart’s last NASCAR win came in 2016 at Sonoma Raceway. He slammed Denny Hamlin in the wall off turn 11 to get that win.
He doesn’t have the entire car of his last NASCAR win. But he did take off the dented body panels and hang it on the wall in the shop.
Stewart ran the 1997 Indy 500. That entire car sits on the floor of his shop.
Tony Stewart’s Daytona crash
In the back of the shop sits a mangled race car from theDaytona 500 on February 18, 2001. It’s the same race that we lost Dale Earnhardt.
“Obviously, this was 25 laps before lost a good buddy of ours. This was the crash that I was involved in, where physically on the race track… I was three wide but I was just enough ahead of the guys, that at the time this happened, I was running 3rd.”
“I got turned in the wall. The air got underneath it, picked it up and I landed on top of my teammate, Bobby Labonte who was running 23rd.”
Tony Stewart was knocked out during the crash. He didn’t want them to cut the top off to get him out. But, he didn’t know how bad the car was.
After the crash, Bobby Labonte approached the machine and said of the cutting the rood, “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that. Let’s get you out of it. I’ll tell you all about of it in a minute.”
“I didn’t know what was going on. But, I could tell by what he was saying that it wasn’t a good deal.”
Tony Stewart motorcycle collection
Stewart has been involved in many on-track crashes. In the dirt car, he’s broken his leg and his back, all within a two year period.
“I’ve got bikes that the insurance won’t let me ride now. Apparently, if you break your leg and you break your back and cost the insurance company money… They try to eliminate opportunities for you to collect on it.”
Jeff Gordon on dirt racing
As Jeff Gordon eyed the cars, it came to his mind that he regrets not running the Indy 500. At the same point, he said 35 is too old to try it. And he said the same thing about returning to a sprint car.
“You are going to get back in a sprint car. We’ll come put a bag over your head and hijack you,” Tony Stewart disagreed.
Jeff Gordon stated, “I tried to get in David Gravel’s car in Knoxville. And I got in. I didn’t think I was going to get out and I literally thought they were going to have to cut the bars out to get me.”
Gordon added, “I loved racing at Bloomington. I would go down, every Friday night. I did it once or twice without a wing. I’m not sure which was harder.”
“By the end of the night, you had to run right on the edge. It had no wall, that lip. You just had to put it right up there. That was fun.”
Tony Stewart’s car collection video
More
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Tony Stewart recalls tearing up NASCAR haulers and getting a bill from Joe Gibbs
Tony Stewart discusses embarrassing NASCAR fights
Stewart, Dale Jr on cheating in racing
Tony Stewart punches nagging dirt racing fan after race (Video)
Stewart comments on the future of NASCAR
Links
Tony Stewart | Jeff Gordon | Stewart-Haas Racing | Tony Stewart Racing | Joe Gibbs Racing | NASCAR
