There certainly never has been and never will be another Tony Stewart. The NASCAR Hall of Famer has proven himself to be one of the most talented racecar drivers in American motorsports history along with being one of the most influential team owners across multiple racing series.
For someone like him, it’s quite evident that his love for racing is endless—just look at the variety of races he still takes part in.
But then again, he is past 50 now, a fact that Dale Earnhardt Jr recently confronted him with as he asked Stewart about the clock ticking over his career as a racecar driver.
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Tony Stewart has let go of a certain part of his life
In a recent episode of The Dale Jr. Download, Junior asked Stewart whether he finds it difficult to get behind the wheel of a Sprint Car now that he is past 50 years of age, whether he feels “the clock running out” before there’s a point he can no longer get inside a racecar and drive.
“That’s the thing. A sprint car, could I go and run a race? Absolutely. Could I run well? Yeah. But can I be in that elite group nowadays? No.
“And after you’ve been there to just do it, as much as I love it, I’m still way too competitive to want to settle for 10th, 15th, 18th,” the SHR co-owner replied. “And knowing that I used to be a guy, I used to be like (Kyle) Larson, I could show up at a World of Outlaws race and actually be competitive and won a couple races.
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“But to sit there nowadays, life’s priorities are starting to change. Now running a sprint car 6, 7, 9 times a year with my wife and what she does for a living and all the projects we got going on, it’s, I’m okay with not doing that,” he added.
“It’s okay to let that aspect of my life go now.”
Stewart is happy with his father being the example of his racing career today
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Having claimed he is okay with letting go of a part of his life, Stewart emphasized that he still going to run the SRX Series this year. Taking his dad’s example, he said, “If my dad’s an example of what the rest of my life’s gonna be like, we’ll be fine. He’s 85 and he’s still racing a three-quarter midget.
“Until I physically feel like it’s hurting me or I don’t feel like I’m competitive, I think it’s the worst thing I can do is to stop racing.”
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To conclude, the Hall of Famer added that the day he feels he’s not good enough as he needs to be to a “good job” in the racecar, he’ll step away. But until then, Stewart claims, “I’ll stay doing it until I can’t do it anymore.”
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