Tony Stewart faces that Down Under controversy head-on

   Subdued (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

  

    And the typically volatile Stewart was indeed contrite about the incident, which he said occurred when he questioned the safety of the track he was supposed to race on because he felt it was too wet.
    Stewart, one of 33 drivers making Thursday morning Daytona 500 testing runs on this track's new asphalt, was quick to address the controversy, which he says has really pained him.
    I'm ashamed about it," he said bluntly.
    "I'm definitely not proud of what happened. And if I had to do it all over again, I would have dealt with it much different.
   "But we had been over there for almost five weeks, and we had been dealing with the same problem with the race track (a slippery, wet surface); so it wasn't just one incident that led up to it, it was a combination of the whole trip."
    Driver safety, Stewart said, was his concern. Stewart of course is one of racing's most accomplished dirt tracks, and he owns legendary Eldora, so he's quite familiar with racing surfaces.
     "I've always been one to speak up for what I think is right, especially when it comes to the safety side of it," Stewart said. "And I didn't think the conditions were safe to run on. And they felt differently."
     Stewart naturally had the option of not racing. Sort of.
    "If it had been just hot laps, then we would have had that option," Stewart said. "But you get points for your heat race; so if we didn't go out, then we were really digging ourselves a hole for the whole night."
    A wet dirt track is not as easy to discern as a wet asphalt track, Stewart pointed out: "It's not like looking at a pavement track and knowing if it's dry or if it's wet.
    "When you're dealing with dirt tracks, and how much moisture is in a track....it was hard for us to know exactly what the conditions were until we got out there, but it was pretty obvious we thought before we even went out that it wasn't going to be good."
    So the confrontation.
   And then the police.
   And the police station.
   And a long, long flight back to the U.S.
   "I'm home...and I'm back doing things that are getting my mind off of it," Stewart said.
    "But this isn't something I've blown off. I've lost a lot of sleep over it -- because I'm very embarrassed....that I made it through a whole trip, and the night before I come home I get in an altercation with somebody.
    "That really hasn't happened for a while.
     "I'm not at all the least bit proud of it. I'm ashamed about it.
     "We just had one bad night out of a 30-day trip."
     Stewart declined to get into detail about how things went at the police station. And he indicated he wasn't sure if the matter was closed yet.
    "We went down to the police station, we gave them a statement, and they told us we were free to go back to the hotel room and free to get on the plane the next day," Stewart said.
    "Definitely wasn't the way I wanted to end my trip.
     "But it's not uncommon to see drivers and track owners have disputes. But this one went a little bit further than a normal dispute.
     "The police department was very cordial, very professional. And we did exactly what they asked us to do, and they let us go.
      "I still want to go back and race.
      "I'm glad this will be over with soon, hopefully."
      Will it?
    "I'm not concerned about it," Stewart insists. "If we have to go back, we'll deal with it.
     "But it's nothing we're concerned with at this point.
     "When they were done with us, they said we were able to go back to the hotel and get on our flight and come back.
      "I made sure they knew exactly where we were staying, when our flight was, and how to get hold of us.
       "We'll deal with it if anything else comes about."

     THE NASCAR NOTEBOOK

      Is a Las Vegas turnaround in the works?
      The city has been hard hit by the economic recession, and those 150,000 hotel rooms have been a hard sell.
      But Wall Street sees things turning, and is upgrading some Las Vegas ventures. For example, MGM is refinancing its debt over that huge and impressive CityCenter project.
      Maybe that bodes well for the upcoming Las Vegas 400 in March.

  
   How dedicated is Alli Owens to making her NASCAR Truck debut here next month? After losing last year's sponsor, the Daytona Beach racer ( http://www.alliowens.com/ )needs $35,000 to make the field, and she's pulling out all the stops....even to the point of using $1,000 from her own wedding fund to help. So far she's raised about $4,000.

    New season, some drivers to keep an eye on:
    Joey Logano. Red-hot last fall.
    Kyle Busch. Still surrounded by questions.
    Paul Menard. Finally started making moves last season, with crew chief Slugger Labbe; Menard and Labbe this season have moved to Richard Childress' Chevy camp.
    Juan Pablo Montoya. A chronic underachiever, JPM started coming around last season, perhaps fired up by new teammate Jamie McMurray's remarkable success.
    Brad Keselowski. Hot at the start of his rookie season, but once Carl Edwards cooled him off, Keselowski almost vanished into the crowd.
    Richard Petty's guys, AJ Allmendinger and Marcos Ambrose. Two wild and crazy drivers who seldom hold back.
    Mark Martin. An off-season last year, after a brilliant 2009. This season Martin is not only running Cup again for Rick Hendrick but also some Truck and Nationwide.

 
   The Earnhardt name still resonates in this sport, and Jeffrey Earnhardt – remember him? – is trying to get his own racing career back on track. Earnhardt, running in the 24 Hours here, just hired Cup veteran Jerry Nadeau as driving coach. Nadeau was a rising star when his career was cut short by a savage crash at Richmond in 2003.