Tony Stewart officially has sponsors for 2009, but he wouldn't divulge much else in a press conference Friday morning in Indianapolis.
The conference was held across the street from Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Literally, the media had to walk across five lanes of traffic outside the speedway to get to it. Talk about a funny sight...) and Stewart announced that Office Depot and Old Spice would be the primary sponsors of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet in 2009.
Of course, if you were a regular FanHouse reader, you would have known that already.
Additionally, Stewart shed some light on how the rest of the "new" team is coming along for 2009, slipping in that they are looking at two drivers for the other car on the SHR operation. That car will take the No. 4 -- made famous by Sterling Marlin and Morgan-McClure Racing in the early 90's by winning back-to-back Daytona 500's.
The No. 4 is special to Stewart because that was his first number in racing when he started in go-carts as a young boy. However, the No. 14 is an homage to Stewart's racing hero, 4-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt.
As I sat there this morning, one thought that came to mind was how incredibly similar the two drivers are. Essentially, Stewart is a modern-day Foyt nearly to a T. Both drivers excelled in many different disciplines of racing and, unfortunately, both drivers have a nasty side that occasionally rears its ugly head -- like it did for Stewart Thursday night at a USAC Midget race in Indianapolis.
Stewart also had an interesting quote about the how his current team, Joe Gibbs Racing, switched from Chevrolet to Toyota in 2008, saying that the "manufacturer switch wasn't a big factor, but it was a factor" -- indicating for the first time that he wasn't the biggest fan of Toyota. Stewart also called coming back to Chevrolet a "natural fit" that "just made sense".
The move is also indicative of the current climate of the American economy, as Old Spice and Office Depot are splitting the sponsorship 60-40, with Office Depot taking the larger amount of the races.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-25-2008 @ 11:31PM
anna seitter said...
TONY has been driving for his own country all along.
His team owners name is JOE GIBBS not KIM JONG HILL .
JOE GIBBS RACING IS LOCATED IN USA AND NOT JAPAN..
The TOYOTA CAMRY is built in USA while the monte carlo/ impala are built in canada and the ford fusion and dodge challeng. are built in MEXICO! TOYOTA provides jobs to the us workers and us economyThe so called usa co. provide jobs and economics to mexico and canada. They are the real taitors.
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7-26-2008 @ 11:44AM
jack harlan said...
tony did the right thing wish him all the luck in the world hes the best wish he would go back to pontiac he was the king but g m is the right move hope that home depot gets on board with him dont want to shop lowes
7-26-2008 @ 10:01AM
Micki said...
I find it interesting that Office Depot can afford to sponsor (even partially) a Cup team when it is laying off employees to save money and the company's stocks have taken a considerable downturn the past 12 months. At least they aren't forking out the $24+ million a year that it would have taken to continue to sponsor Carl Edwards - I'm sure they were able to get Tony Stewart for less.
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7-26-2008 @ 12:04PM
Kim Thompson said...
We love Tony no matter where he drives, because he speaks his mind and has never been afraid to step up when things were not right. I have a child that just turned 5 , he has been on life support , had 3 strokes, but we have been blessed he has almost full recovery...and is a Tony fan all the way, knows all of his TV spots and yells for his car when racing,,and is excited about his new car Red is his favorite color..good luck tony and crew me and (Logan) will be rooting for you in 2009!!!!
the Thompson Family
Longview, Texas
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7-30-2008 @ 2:22PM
art said...
thanks tony for coming back and driving for your own country. my family is behind you all the way.
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7-30-2008 @ 9:19PM
anna seitter said...
WOW , TONY STEWART has been driving for his country always. The toyota camryes are built in USA and the toyota plan provide hundreds of thousands of jobs to the american employerand not the foreign worker.
TONY stewart DRIVES FOR joe gibbs racing and not mr soushi
or teriyaki or mitsubishi. JGR is an american employer located in charlotte n.c. usa and bnot japan.
While the foreign car manufacturer like toyota build their cars in USA, FORD AND CHRYSLER are biulding their FUSION ,FOCUS, CHALLENGER ETC IN MEXICO. GEN. MOT.
is building their monte carlo /impala etc in CANADA and the chevy aveo in CINA. WHO HAS NOT BEEN DRIVING FOR THEIR COUNTRY, AGAIN??? Defenetely not tony stewart.
THE REAL TRAITORS AND FOREIGN ECONOMY HELPERS HAVE BEEN GM, CHRYSLER,FORD NOT TOYOTA, NOT JGR, NOT TSTEW.
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8-05-2008 @ 12:36PM
Kianna said...
I am a Tony Stewart fan. Sad to see him leave JGR, but no one but him needs to look out for his future. Glad that he no longer has that orange/black car ... didnt like the halloween look ... lol. Was hoping he would have that old spice color, but red and white will do just fine. And it doesn't bother me what car make he drives ... a true Tony fan will stand behind him all the way.
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