{"id":24643,"date":"2016-02-26T16:05:39","date_gmt":"2016-02-27T00:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=24643"},"modified":"2016-02-26T16:06:16","modified_gmt":"2016-02-27T00:06:16","slug":"what-tony-stewarts-absence-will-mean-to-fans-in-his-final-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/what-tony-stewarts-absence-will-mean-to-fans-in-his-final-season\/","title":{"rendered":"What Tony Stewart’s Absence Will Mean To Fans in His Final Season"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tony
Tony Stewart, driver of the #14 Office Depot\/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, celebrates after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Ford 400 and the 2011 Series Championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 20, 2011 in Homestead, Florida. Stewart wins his third NASCAR Championship. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The accident and resulting injury Tony Stewart suffered in a sand rail mishap in the Southern California desert late last month can best be described as a freak incident.<\/p>\n

Stewart had to undergo surgery a few days after the wreck and his return has become nothing more than a guessing game. Some reports say it may be late May before he\u2019s able to climb back in a race car. Other reports say July, and I\u2019ve seen at least one or two others that say Stewart\u2019s season is done \u2013 as is his career would then be as well.<\/p>\n

But the three-time Sprint Cup champion isn\u2019t the only one who\u2019s hurting as a result. So too are a countless number of diehard fans of Stewart and the No. 14 Chevrolet.<\/p>\n

No, they weren\u2019t riding shotgun with Stewart when he sailed over a sand dune and came down in an extremely hard landing. But in a sense, they may as well have been.<\/p>\n

For Stewart\u2019s injury couldn\u2019t have come at a worse time if you\u2019re a Stewart fan. In what was supposed to be a joyous celebration of his career \u2013 he is due to retire at the end of the current NASCAR season \u2013 I can\u2019t imagine the number of fans who will never get a chance to say goodbye to Stewart or see him race again in-person.<\/p>\n

Not to mention Tony missing his last chance to finally claim the elusive Daytona 500 victory he spent 16 years chasing \u2013 and now will never have the chance to do so again.<\/p>\n

Think of all the fans that bought tickets for all the early-season races and tracks that the NASCAR tour visits. In addition to Daytona, there\u2019s Atlanta this weekend, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Fontana, Bristol, Texas, Talladega \u2013 and who knows how many more tracks and races Stewart will miss.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t misinterpret that I\u2019m blaming Stewart for disappointing so many of his fans. That\u2019s totally not the case.<\/p>\n

Rather, having known Stewart for over 15 years, I bet the fact he\u2019s not racing \u2013 and not engaging with his legion of fans \u2013 is probably hurting him as much as it hurts them, and probably hurting him as much as the lingering pain from his accident does.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s such a contrast between Jeff Gordon\u2019s final year and all the honors that came with it last season, and how this season has begun for Stewart being sidelined.<\/p>\n

The Indiana native had said he didn\u2019t want tracks to go out of their way to \u201ccelebrate\u201d his impending retirement or reflect back on his illustrious career. He wanted little fanfare. He just wanted to do what his idol, A.J. Foyt, did when he went out as a race car driver: simple and quietly.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that Stewart didn\u2019t want his fans to share in the moment in his final appearance as a driver at every track on the circuit. But he wanted to do it his way, not have something artificially engineered by track PR and marketing types.<\/p>\n

Also See:<\/strong> \u00a0Ty Dillon to Replace Stewart in Atlanta<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stewart is a very proud man. It\u2019s part of his Midwest roots and blue collar upbringing.<\/p>\n

He knows how much his absence is hurting the sport and hurting his fans. But perhaps the most difficult aspect \u2013 or the thing that hurts the most, after his injury \u2013 is he can\u2019t do anything about it.<\/p>\n

Throughout his racing career, be it IndyCar, sprint cars or NASCAR, Stewart has always been the kind of Type A personality and athlete that took charge, leading the way on and off the track.<\/p>\n

When he was told he couldn\u2019t do something, particularly if it came via NASCAR edict earlier in his career, Stewart would more often than not either not listen or ask why he couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Granted, he\u2019s mellowed with time and matured. Being a co-team owner has had a lot to do with that. He\u2019s had to have a more civil demeanor and attitude. Sure, he could still be Smoke, but only on the track.<\/p>\n

Off the track, he had to worry about keeping sponsors happy \u2013 and about keeping their checks coming to help support either his team or the other three Cup teams under the SHR umbrella.<\/p>\n

Of course, if he had his druthers, this would never have happened to Stewart. He was merely having an afternoon of fun, made a mistake and now he\u2019s paying for it \u2013 for who knows how long.<\/p>\n

And in a way, his fans are paying for it, too, not being able to cheer for him or see him one last time.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s just hope Stewart recovers by June, so he\u2019ll have one more chance to show his appreciation to fans when the circuit goes back around and visits most tracks for the second time.<\/p>\n

Or in Stewart\u2019s case, the last time around for him.<\/p>\n

Follow me on Twitter @JerryBonkowski<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tony Stewart’s accident is keeping him out of the drivers’ seat for the forseeable, which is a shame both for Stewart and his loyal fans.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":24648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,3424,3470],"tags":[4067,4131,3384,127,1632,1192],"class_list":["post-24643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-column","category-nascar","category-news","tag-2016-nascar-sprint-cup-series","tag-fans","tag-jerry-bonkowski","tag-nascar","tag-racing","tag-tony-stewart"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/TStewart-093015-Feature.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-6pt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24643"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24651,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24643\/revisions\/24651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}