Why Separates Tony Stewart From Other NASCAR Icons on the Business Side of Things

One would think it’d be difficult to manage, let alone be successful in having a part-time driving career, along with being an owner in the NASCAR Cup Series, the NHRA, the SRX Series, the Eldora Speedway, and more. But that’s the case for Tony Stewart because he is not only involved in all of those things, but he’s also quite successful with them. So what is it that Stewart is doing that’s helping his case?

After all, there are other owners or former drivers who ventured into ownership and didn’t have the results that Stewart has had. This was a question that was recently posed to him on Hot Rod Pod. What is it that Smoke does differently than the others?

“I’m not doing anything different than that,” he replied. “Most of those guys that you see get into those situations, they think they know what they’re doing. And that’s where it goes sideways because they won’t let loose off the control because they’re scared to let loose off the control.”

The 3x Cup champion claimed that going into ownership in all of his ventures, he knew he wouldn’t be able to do it alone, and that needed somebody of “reasonable sound mind” to balance his ideas. “So it’s literally surrounding yourself with good people and honestly, it’s that way in life if people pay attention to that,” Stewart continued.

“Don’t hang around people that don’t add value to your life because you’re wasting your life on those people.”

Tony Stewart isn’t going through a good run as an owner lately

Even though he has tasted a lot of success in almost all of his ventures as an owner, Tony Stewart, the owner, is going through a bit of a rough patch as of late. For instance, his famed All-Star SRX Series recently announced that it was canceling the 2024 season, considering their expectations “have been tempered by market factors that have proven to be too much to overcome.”

On the NASCAR Cup side, after a rather disappointing year in 2023, the current off-season has seen Stewart-Haas Racing lose a bunch of sponsors such as Busch Light, and Hunt Brothers Pizza, among others.

So by most accounts, things are currently far from ideal for Tony Stewart, the team owner, and the series owner.

But one imagines that this period of bad luck and underwhelming situations won’t last for long considering the guy in the office, Tony Stewart, and the group of people standing alongside him.