Tony Stewart Race Quotations

I am a racer. I'm not a race car driver. I am a racer. I race. That's what I do. I don't go on vacations. I don't take my family on vacations because I don't have a family. My family is the racing family.

Get in the race car do what I do then go home. We don't have freedom to do anything anymore.

Race cars, no matter what size or shape they are, they do the same things. It is not complicated.

I've got more stuff asked of me every week. But I drive a race car for a living. My car owner lets me race as many sprint car races as I want to run.

Obviously we wanted to win the race after leading that many laps.

I hate to say I'm growing up because it scares me to think I might be but maybe I'm starting to realize there are more things to life than driving a race car.

It doesn't mean he's not a good driver. He hasn't forgotten how to drive a race car.

We would have loved to have won the race after leading all those laps.

Every race we come here there is a lot of wrappers and stuff, ... The majority of grandstands are on the west side, and the wind was blowing to the east. I wouldn't say it was any worse than it typically is. It was pretty much the normal amount. ... With as windy as it was, I'll be honest. I expected it to be a lot worse.

As the race went on, we just kept fighting, trying to get the (car's) balance right. But we stayed in the top 10 all day. Most of the beginning of the race we stayed in the top five until we got a little behind, and we just never could really get caught up. But we were able to maintain all day. So it wasn't by any means a disastrous day, but with the big picture I would have liked it to be better.

As far as the to-do list is concerned, it's the No. 1 thing. The last two years, I've led enough laps to win the whole race outright.

It was fun racing like that. If there'd been 80 laps to go, neither one of us would have raced each other that hard. But with 30 laps to go, you're going to race each other that hard for sure, knowing you're getting down to the end.

It was a solid lap, ... We spent the first hour in race trim knowing the weather might be bad on Saturday.  On our next run, we went out for speed and that put us on top of the board.  We went back out and moved it up again on the list.  We picked up the same amount of time.  It was all about going out there and trying to be smooth on the lap.  It was a good day all the way around.

It's nice that they don't have to talk about my behavior anymore, ... That's the biggest honor you can have, for the guys you race with to give you that kind of compliment.

It's such a chess match. You can be leading the race one second, and you can be fifth the next second. I think it's just a matter of timing and getting yourself in the right place at the right time.

It was a good race, ... That's awesome short track racing right there. They (the fans) got their money's worth today. That's the way the race to the Chase should start, just like that. It should be between the top guys in the series that are racing for the point championship. Ryan did an awesome job and we just couldn't hold him off there at the end.

Daytona is a restrictor-plate race and, unlike Daytona, guys can't get in a line at Phoenix and go to the front. Daytona and Talladega (Ala.) have always just been two different forms of racing. With the draft being so important at those two tracks, it's more of a team deal than an individual deal. What happens at Phoenix and the races after that has to be done on your own. You can't help each other at Phoenix. You just have to go race.

To be a driver that can cross off one of those marquee events as a winner, that cements your legacy in motorsports, to be able to win the Daytona 500 is the ultimate dream of a race car driver.