During the race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, Tony Stewart was flying around at about 190 mph in his bright orange No. 20, pretty much staying out of trouble, not getting in to any and not causing any…a good day for Tony. Then POW! It looked like a tire exploded and shot his car right on up into the wall. It happens…in fact it happens quite often in this sport. But this time, it took more of a toll on Tony than we expected to see.
It took Tony a good while to put his window net down, the expected move from a driver to tell everyone he’s okay after a mix up with the track or other drivers. Once he finally put the net down, he sat a bit, with the track emergency personnel talking with him and assessing any possible injuries. He then very carefully climbed out of his car. He stood there raking his hand through his hair, trying to assess the same thing the emergency fellows were…was he hurt? He was assisted to the waiting vehicle, supported by two men as he put as little weight on his legs as he could.
The TV screen showed the collision with the wall over and over again while the analysts tried to determine why it happened. Later in the race, we were able to see Tony as the reporter checked in on his status. Tony’s face told us he was either in pain or very humbled by the crash. He mentioned he’d had lower back pain and some numbness in his legs when he crashed, which explained that carefully orchestrated walk to the waiting vehicle after he’d climbed out of his smashed up car. That alone could scare the beejeebies out of you; suddenly you’d realize just how human and vulnerable you really are.
At any rate, Tony was walking and talking, a gift he might not take for granted over these next few days.
But give him a little while, and he’ll forget the scare, and he’ll forget the pain and he’ll climb on back into one of his bright orange cars, tighten those belts and take a deep breath. He’ll give the other fellows a run for the money, he’ll make some of them mad, and make some of them laugh, because that’s what Tony does.
And we’ll watch him, and we’ll cheer for him and fuss at him and roll our eyes when he spits out a sarcastic remark. But we’ll all be real glad we’ve got our friend Tony out on the track. After all, every sport has to have a smart aleck know it all, and every one of them has to be reminded once in awhile that they’re just as human as the rest of us.
But more importantly, Tony’s a great racer, skilled beyond what most of us can understand, and easily frustrated when he can’t accomplish what he knows he’s capable of. His mildly abrasive attitude is quite tolerable when you look past it and see what’s really brewing under there. He expects a first class run out of his car, his team, and himself every time he gets behind the wheel. And he usually gets it; at least that’s what we see. But Tony, he sees those little things that just grind at his patience…things like a darn tire taking a vacation in the middle of a race…those things don’t fit into his plan. And he just hates that stuff; it takes his hopeful mood and puts a wrench in it, triggering those much loathed smarty remarks and care less motions. He cares…so much so that it takes all he’s got not to unload how he really feels when a microphone gets shoved under his nose.
You scared us a bit Tony…yep, waiting for the window net to go down and waiting for you to climb out was a bit unnerving. And yes, we know wrecks come with the game, but yuck, can you maybe just try not to scare us like that again? We would greatly appreciate if you would consider our request. Thank you so much.
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