NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 4, 2016

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS held a press conference with media at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Full Transcript:

THE MODERATOR: I think you all know this gentleman here, three-time champion, Tony Stewart.
We have an exciting initiative to talk to you about today, then we’ll answer some questions. We’ll try to knock out a couple of birds with one stone.
Mobil 1 has been a cornerstone partner with Stewart-Haas Racing since 2011. In addition to their activation with their consumers and employees, they’ve made a series of videos that are about as good as there are in racing between ‘Smokey The Bandit’ and the ‘Soda Cookie’ commercial. I think those are as good as any in racing.

In that vein, this week they’re unveiling a Tony’s Next Chapter. They’ve made four videos speculating on what life is going to be like for Tony Stewart after Sprint Cup racing. So we wanted you all to see two of those videos today. The other two will be released later this month.
These videos will be housed on Stewart-Haas and Mobil 1’s websites, Twitter accounts and Facebook accounts, and Mobil 1’s YouTube channel.
Let’s go ahead and show the videos. The first is called Tony’s Meat Smoker.

TONY STEWART: He’s been waiting to say that all morning. Look at the look on his face (laughter).

THE MODERATOR: The second one is Tony Learns French, the language.

(Video Shown.)

THE MODERATOR: Thoughts?

TONY STEWART: I’m glad that’s over (laughter).

No, we did all four spots in one day. I think everybody in racing has realized us drivers are not very good actors. If you just make it funny, it goes off really well.
These two that you saw were pretty fun. We had a good time with them. I mean, you think back to the Soda Cookie one, people still talk about that.
I never look at the scripts till we get there the day of it because I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday, so I can’t memorize stuff till I get there.
I saw the script. You guys want me to do what? It has been such a popular commercial.

So doing these four spots has been a lot of fun. Mobil 1 has been a great partner. They definitely let you know how to have fun with these spots. Their creative team is awesome. They’re just as creative off the track as they are with their products on the track. We had a lot of fun. I think they’re four really neat spots.

THE MODERATOR: The next two we’ll roll out later in the month is Tony Picks Up Painting and Tony Becomes a Cheese Connoisseur.

TONY STEWART: Yeah, you’ll like ’em, trust me (laughter).

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Tony.

Q. Tony, can you give us a medical update on how you’re doing?

TONY STEWART: I wish I knew. I actually go back to Charlotte for x-rays next Wednesday. That’s the first time since the surgery that we’ll have an update, have a progress report.

But for a month now, I haven’t done anything but just kind of chill out. The doctors want me lying in bed and walking. They don’t want me sitting and standing.
I’m definitely breaking the rules. They didn’t want me flying out here. They didn’t want me in Atlanta. But I can’t lay in bed any longer. It’s about to kill me.
We did everything we could. We did everything short of bubble wrap me to ride out here on the plane. We were as comfortable as can be.
We feel pretty good. It’s like everything else: your body tells you when it’s had enough, when it’s sore. You just got to listen to it. We try not to sit any longer than we have to, try not to stand very long. Even if I’m around a small group, if I take three or four steps back, stay in the group, it almost looks like you’re eager to go to the bathroom, but you have to move around a little bit to keep the weight from hanging there and being hard on the rods on my back.

Q. Has anybody from SHR talked to anybody from NASCAR as to a waiver? Do you think you might be able to come back and have a shot at making the Chase?

TONY STEWART: I’ll do the best I can. That’s all I ever do, is do the best that I can.
Whatever they decide they decide. I would like to think it’s going to be similar to what they did last year with Kyle (Busch).

The biggest thing I’m worried about is just getting this healed properly. That’s my biggest concern, is just making sure that it heals right. I’m anxious to get x-rayed next week because I’m very curious about what the progress has been like for the last 30 days.

We’ll wait and see. But, you know, it’s just a waiting process right now. Honestly, like I said, the biggest concern is just making sure it heals right the first time.

Q. When you were going through your leg rehab, you talked about how painful it was, the scar tissue stuff. Has this been any easier at all on you? Also, do you feel like you have enough mobility and pain tolerance that once they say the bone is healed, you can be in the car right away?

TONY STEWART: When they clear me to do it, I can promise you I’ll be ready to do it. We’ve been through enough pain tolerance with the leg and this, I don’t think it’s a big drama.

It’s very similar. I mean, like I said, your body tells you when it’s had enough for the day. It’s just paying attention to it. When you start feeling like you’re getting sore, that’s a good sign that it’s time to get off your back. Even if I lay down for 10 minutes, it’s like it recharges the battery and kind of makes it feel good enough to get going again.

When it gets time to get back in the car, we’ll be plenty ready. I’ve been driving a street car for two and a half weeks now, it doesn’t bother me, I just can’t do it for long periods of time.

Like I say, that’s kind of why we’re anxious to get these x-rays done, to kind of figure out where we’re at. We really don’t have any clue how far this has gone since the surgery. I’m probably more eager than anybody to know what the result of this is going to be.

Q. How important is it for you to be able to come to the track and have the interaction? I’m sure the fans seeing you, that has to be a big boost. Talk about what it means for you, even in your recovery, to be able to come to the racetrack, be around the sport you love.

TONY STEWART: The hard part is I don’t know if being here is actually hurting me or helping me. I don’t really know. That’s kind of why I’m eager to find out on Friday to see what the progress is. Like I say, the doctors don’t want me to be out here.

At the same time it’s good for me. I think it’s good for our team more than anything. I want to be here to support them. I want them to know that even though I’ve kind of put them in a box again, that I’m going to be here and I’m going to be supportive. That’s a big deal to me, to be here and let those guys know I’m behind them 100%.

I want to be at the track. That’s where I always want to be. That’s a big deal to me.

It’s hard. Especially after the leg injury a couple years ago, I haven’t forgot how long I sat and laid around. You lay around now ’cause you’re being told to and it’s
like, I can’t do it anymore. I’ve got to get up and get moving around.

I’m a lot happier here. I would rather be here and be in pain than be at home, be comfortable, and no pain. The pain is worth it to me. I don’t mind it.

Q. I also heard you taking more of a role on the radio. It almost seems like you’re getting ready for your next job in this sport, which would be more on the management side. How does it feel acclimating to that role, getting a view of what it’s going to be like to step out of the car?

TONY STEWART: I was on top of the spotter’s stand to help Ty (Dillon) out last week. I won’t be this week. Brian (Vickers) has been around this long enough. He knows what to do. He doesn’t need me telling him what to do.

Ty, after talking to him after practice, we realized even if he didn’t need any help, it was just to have me up there and know if he had a question he could ask. It was a big deal to him. That’s why we did it last week.

I thought he did a great job. He far exceeded my expectations last week. But I don’t know that I think about it from what I’m going to do next year because I probably won’t be on the spotter’s stand next year either.

It’s just saying, Okay, what does my role be right now? I can’t drive the car, but what can I do to be productive and help? That’s really what last week was really about.

Q. I think it was during your Periscope session at Daytona that a fan asked you something to the effect of, Would you reconsider extending your retirement year to next year. You were very adamant that wasn’t going to happen. Did you just make up your mind that this was going to be it before the accident even happened so you never gave it any consideration?

TONY STEWART: That’s what we said in the announcement last year that this year would be the last year. I’m not going to change the plan because I got hurt.
These are the cards we were dealt. It was a weird accident that nobody ever thought would happen. I mean, I can’t even make the story about how I got hurt, I can’t even make it sound cool. I mean, I got hurt driving five miles an hour. That’s hard to make sound cool.
I wish I could tell you the story of I was jumping a 50-foot gap, running 60 miles an hour, it flipped over, caught on fire, and I broke my back. That’s not what happened.

I went over the lip of a dune, went down 20, 25 feet, landed like a lawn dart. It broke my back. It’s hard to make that sound cool, but that’s just what it is.
That’s the cards we’re dealt. We’ll play the rest of the year out. As soon as they tell me I can be back in the car, I’m going to be wide-open, 100%. I’m not going to leave anything on the table each race. It’s get everything I can get. At the end of the year we got what we got. I’ll go on with the rest of it afterwards.

Q. We’re here at a Mobil 1 announcement. There’s a lot of talk behind the scenes about how your sponsor has handled this injury. How has Mobil 1 been, your sponsors, about you not being in the car?

TONY STEWART: I think it shows how good a partner we have with Mobil 1 first of all. They’ve been through a lot with us the last couple years and stood behind us 100%, supported us 100%. That’s not changed this year, too. I think it speaks volumes to what Mobil 1 means to SHR.

I don’t know how you handle it. You can’t predict it’s going to happen. Obviously if you had a choice, you would never let any of these things happen. But you got to move on and you got to do the best you can. Luckily we have partners that care more about what we’re doing than me being inside the racecar each week. They care about the program, they care about everybody that works in the program. We keep pushing forward.

They’ve been supportive through every one of the things we’ve been through in the last three years.

Q. About you calling it quits, you made that decision. Have you given any thoughts, any one-offs, anything in the future for the Daytona 500 or anything along those lines?

TONY STEWART: No, not even 1% considering it.

There’s races that I want to run. I honestly am trying to figure out how I could run the Truck race at Eldora. It sounds easy to sign up and do it. I got a lot of responsibilities. But I’d love to run the Truck race there.

I’d love to run some Mod Tour races at Loudon when we’re up there. There’s one-off races like that, but there are not going to be one-off races in the Cup Series.

Q. Who is going to be in the car at Phoenix and beyond?

TONY STEWART: We’ll let you know that when we’re ready to tell everybody that.

Basically the races that Bass Pro is going to be on the car, Ty will be in the car. The rest of the races it will be Brian.
I had to mess with somebody today. I didn’t get to mess with you at Speedweeks for 10 days; last week, I had to mess with somebody (laughter).

Q. You may not be able to answer this. Do we have any estimation when you’ll be back yet?

TONY STEWART: I don’t know how you can predict when you’re going to be back in a car when they haven’t even done an x-ray since you’ve been operated on. Until they can see the progress, you can’t set a timeframe. They have a projected window, but you can’t pinpoint it until we get further along.

Literally I haven’t done rehab or anything. They won’t let me do rehab or anything until they get the x-rays done next week and they’re happy with that. Then we’ll start rehab.

Honestly, you can’t even get an idea of what it’s going to be at least till we get through next week and find out what the x-rays look like. I think that will give them a little better idea.

This is a different injury than the leg injury. The leg injury was a much more severe injury, but this is a much more sensitive injury. If this doesn’t heal right, if we do something that messes it up, it could affect me the rest of my life. My leg, if I did something too soon, it just made it hurt, was more pain, but it wasn’t going to mess anything up.

This, if we do anything too soon, we could mess it up for the rest of my life. It’s more important to let this thing heal right. We’re not rushing to get back in the car. Like I said, the number one priority is to give it the opportunity to heal right the first time. Once they say we’re all right to get in it, we’ll get in it. We’re not going to push that issue. We’re not going to try to do something before we’re ready. We’re going to definitely make sure it’s done right.

Q. Tony, we saw you out at the dirt oval last night. Anybody specific you were cheering on?

TONY STEWART: Yeah, the guy that drives my Sprint car, Donny Schatz. I tend to like to pull for the guys that actually work for me (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, everyone.