![]() ![]() A NASCAR spokesman, too, said that “everything that’s been made available to us at this time would not preclude from participating in this event here today.” Thankfully, Stewart and his team changed their minds, with Zipadelli saying “it’s an emotional time right now.” ( Update, Aug. In the early hours of Sunday morning, Greg Zipadelli, the competition director for Stewart’s team, said that the driver would race as scheduled-that it was “business as usual,” a statement he’ll surely come to regret if he doesn’t already. For all his gruffness, I don’t believe that even in his deepest rage he would want to hurt a fellow driver. I can’t imagine him jeopardizing either the sport or his ability to compete in it by willfully committing an unspeakably heinous act. But he’s also a man with a deep understanding of racing and an abiding love for it. I have seen him wreck cars-his own and others-because he believes some unwritten principle of racing, some apocryphal code dating back to Junior Johnson or his hero A.J. There is no doubt that he is a short-tempered competitor. There is no doubt that Stewart can be a jerk. As both a team owner and a driver, he’s as beholden to corporate support as every other driver, but he speaks his mind and shoots from the hip, a refreshing throwback to the ornery icons of stock-car yore. Stewart, by contrast, is more likely to emerge from his car cursing one of NASCAR’s corporate partners-deriding Goodyear, say, for providing substandard tires. But Johnson is also a clean-cut, mild-mannered guy, who smoothly rattles off the names of his sponsors when he emerges from his Chevy in Victory Lane. It’s hard to think of an athlete who has dominated a sport as definitively as Johnson-he’s Lance Armstrong without the doping. For nearly a decade, NASCAR has been dominated by Jimmie Johnson, an incredible talent who doesn’t get enough credit for his remarkable run of championships. But for his fans, who make YouTube tributes that highlight his irascibility, that attitude is what makes him great. That turns a lot of people off-he’s one of the more divisive figures in NASCAR. Stewart is a prickly, hot-headed competitor. The things I love about Stewart, and the things so many of his fans love about him, are the very traits that at least set up the conditions for Saturday night’s disastrous wreck. I am a fan of both, though one whose faith in the man and the sport is shaken today. Your view of Stewart’s culpability will be colored by your opinion of the driver, and perhaps of auto racing more generally. ![]()
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