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He had already earned a NASCAR Cup Series championship trophy in 2002, which sat alongside his 1997 IRL IndyCar Series trophy, which was next to a pedestal featuring his four United States Auto Club (USAC) championship rings. He was the first and only driver to have won championships in stock cars, Indy cars and open-wheel Midget, Sprint and Silver Crown cars.
Ever the overachiever, Stewart added to his trophy collection by securing the 2005 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series championship, and in doing so, joined an elite group of 14 drivers who have scored multiple Cup Series titles.
"Being in a group of only 14 guys that have won multiple championships means more than just winning the championship by itself," said Stewart, who joins Jeff Gordon as the only active drivers to have more than one championship. "To be in a group where there's only 14 of us in the past 50 years or so that have won more than once is a huge, huge honor."
In a season where Stewart earned five wins, scored three poles and tallied a career best 17 top-fives and 25 top-10s, the championship was well-earned. But it was one victory in particular that Stewart puts ahead of his second NASCAR title - his emotional win in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
"You dream about something for so long, you become consumed by it," said Stewart, a Columbus, Ind., native who grew up with dreams of racing at Indianapolis. "When I was in USAC trying to make a living as a race car driver, I drove a tow truck for a guy I raced Sprint cars against. I would drive down Georgetown toward 16th Street, parallel with the frontstretch, and wonder what it would be like 300 feet to the left running 200 mph. I got a chance to do that, and finally, after years of trying to win, be it in Indy cars or stock cars, I got to know what it feels like, to see that view coming down the front straightaway, seeing the checkered flag and knowing that I was the first driver to cross the stripe, versus the second, third or fourth-place guy. I had wanted that moment for so long, and I finally got it."
The Brickyard win, his four other wins and the strong finishes in a dominant season that culminated with the championship earned Stewart a record season-ending payout of $13,578,168.
"When I started racing at the age of eight, getting a trophy that was bigger than the other kids was all I cared about," said Stewart, whose first championship was a local karting title in 1980. "To get a huge check from Nextel and NASCAR, it's a pretty big deal.
"I couldn't have asked for more out of this life. I feel like I'm a very, very fortunate person, so no matter what happens, no matter how long I race or don't race, the goals and everything that happens from here is just icing on the cake. I've been very lucky to do the things I've done."
The taste of a first NASCAR title in 2002 made Stewart and his #20 Home Depot Racing Team hungry for their second title. With that goal now accomplished and another year of Nextel Cup racing ahead of them, Stewart and Co. want to do what they weren't able to do in 2003 - defend their championship.
"The competition level is so tight now," said Stewart. "At the beginning of the year you used to be able to pick about five guys who you thought had a realistic shot at winning the championship. But now, you can pick anywhere from 10-12 guys who have a legitimate shot at the championship. If you have a good year and some luck goes your way, you can run for a championship. From the time this team was formed in 1999, that's always been our goal."
More wins and more championships are what Stewart and his #20 Home Depot Racing Team look to in the future. But to understand the possibilities that lie in Stewart's future, one must look to the past.
Stewart's racing career began at age seven behind the wheel of a go-kart, with his father, Nelson, serving as car owner and crew chief.
"He never let me settle for second," said Stewart of his dad, who still frequents races whenever his schedule permits. "He didn't like it when we ran second, and he knew that I didn't like it when we ran second. If he saw that I wasn't giving 100 percent, then he was on me pretty hard about it. He pushed me to be better.
"He never pressured me to be the best race car driver in the world, but he did pressure me to be the best race car driver that I could be. He never compared me to anybody else. He expected that what I could do was what I could do. He never said that because this guy over here could do something that I should be able to do it, too. He pushed me hard, but he was fair about it. That's probably why you see so much fire in me today, because he always wanted me to be the best that I could be."
In 1980 at the age of eight, Stewart had won his first championship - a 4-cycle rookie junior class championship at the Columbus Fairgrounds. Two more karting championships followed, but this time on a national level - the 1983 International Karting Federation Grand National championship and the 1987 World Karting Association National championship.
By 1989, Stewart had begun the transition from go-karts to higher-horsepower, open-wheel machines. He raced Three-Quarter Midgets before turning his attention to the USAC ranks in 1991 where he won Rookie of the Year honors.
Stewart notched his first USAC championship in 1994 by winning five times in 22 starts in the National Midget category. It was a prelude to even bigger things, as 1995 was the year Stewart made USAC history by winning the Triple Crown. He won the National Midget, Sprint and Silver Crown titles all in the same year, a feat never accomplished by anyone before Stewart.
That success led to Stewart earning a ride in the fledgling IndyCar Series. After earning the Rookie of the Year award in 1996, Stewart won the series championship the following year.
While 1997 bore an IndyCar championship, it also bore the seeds to Stewart's current NASCAR success. A slate of 22 NASCAR Busch Series races with Joe Gibbs Racing in 1998 prepared Stewart for his assault on the Cup ranks in 1999.
During that remarkable rookie season, where Stewart won three races and was crowned Rookie of the Year, he also competed in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. The grueling trek, known as "Double Duty," saw Stewart compete in a Home Depot-sponsored Indy car at Indianapolis before flying to Concord, N.C., to compete in the Coca-Cola 600 that evening in his #20 Home Depot machine. He became the first driver to complete both races in the same day, finishing ninth and fourth, respectively. All told, Stewart drove a total of 1,090 miles.
Stewart repeated this feat in 2001, when he drove a Target/Home Depot Indy car for Chip Ganassi at Indy. He bettered his mark from 1999 by finishing on the lead lap in sixth before jetting off to Concord for the Coca-Cola 600. He improved that finish as well, coming home third in the 600 miler. When it was all said and done, Stewart completed all 1,100 miles - breaking his own record for most racing miles driven in one day.
While it wasn't a driving championship, Stewart earned another championship on the World of Outlaws circuit. His team - Tony Stewart Motorsports - won the 2001 World of Outlaws championship in their rookie year. And in the four years since, Stewart's team has finished second in points three times. He also owns numerous USAC teams that compete in the Sprint, Midget and Silver Crown divisions. They too have won championships, with Stewart having four USAC owner's titles.
In addition to being devoted to racing, Stewart is also devoted to philanthropy, so much so that he formed his own charitable foundation in 2003. Known simply as the Tony Stewart Foundation, its goal is to raise funds that will be primarily distributed to organizations that help care for critically ill children, as well as to lend support to families of race car drivers who have been injured in motorsports.
Stewart, single, still calls Columbus home, where he lives in the house he grew up in. He has a sister, Natalie, who helps run the Tony Stewart Fan Club along with their mom, Pam Boas, who also runs the Foundation.
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