Tony Stewart

Lore & Background

Tony Stewart arrived in CART in 1996 at the Penske Racing shop, and the series felt the shift almost immediately. Where many open-wheel drivers relied on smooth, calculated lines, Stewart attacked corners with a physicality borrowed from dirt-track and short-oval racing. He was willing to slide the car, to contact the wall, to gamble on a pass when the racing line said no. In 1997, that approach paid off in spectacular fashion: he won the Indianapolis 500 and then went on to claim the CART Drivers' Championship in the same season, a dual achievement that cemented his status as the sport's new standard-bearer. The split between CART and IRL in 1996 created a strange bifurcation in American open-wheel racing, and Stewart found himself at the center of it. After leaving Penske, he joined Sam Schmidt's Panther Racing team in the IRL series. Three 500s in five years, across two different series and two different teams, made his Indianapolis record one of the most impressive in the event's history. Stewart's legacy in IndyCar is inseparable from his personality. He was confrontational, outspoken, and unapologetically competitive in a way that the more reserved open-wheel culture had rarely seen. Fans loved it; rivals resented it. Whether sliding a #2 Penske into Turn 1 at Watkins Glen or defending a lead at the 1.5-mile oval in Indianapolis, he made every race feel personal. His retirement from full-time racing and subsequent career in NASCAR, where he won three Cup Series championships, only deepened the 'Kitchen Sink' mythology, but for IndyCar fans, it was the open-wheel years—the 500s, the CART title, the Panther Racing battles—that defined him.

In Their Own Story

The afternoon sun hung low over the backstretch at Indianapolis, painting the concrete in shades of amber and rust. Pit lane was a symphony of impact wrenches and compressed air, the #2 Panther hissing as the crew cycled through the final tire change. Tony Stewart sat in the cockpit, hands on the wheel, feeling the carbon-fiber seat absorb the vibration of the idling engine. Three wins here. Three times he'd come through this tunnel, three times he'd felt the green flag's electric jolt in his shoulders. But this one felt different. The car was alive under him, twitchy and eager, and he could feel the track's grooves through the steering column like a pulse. He exhaled, tapped the wheel twice—a small ritual, a small prayer—and waited for the field to settle. The flag was coming. It always was.

Reader's Guide

CHAMPIONSHIPS

1997 CART Drivers' Championship: Stewart claimed the series title in his second full CART season, driving for Penske Racing. The win validated his aggressive style in a field of technically refined European-influenced drivers and announced him as a generational talent. INDY 500 VICTORIES

1997 (Penske Racing): His first of three, won in a season that also delivered the CART title. The dual achievement made him the sport's dominant figure overnight. Three 500s in five years, across two teams and two series, is a record that speaks to pure talent rather than team advantage. CAREER TOTALS & LEGACY

Stewart's IndyCar career spanned the late 1990s and early 2000s, a period of maximum competitive intensity in American open-wheel racing. His three 500s place him among the most decorated drivers in the event's history, and his two open-wheel championships (one CART, one IRL) make him one of the few drivers to top both major American series in the split era.

Did You Know?

• His nickname 'The Kitchen Sink' came from his simultaneous pursuit of top-level competition in NASCAR, IndyCar, and motorcycle road racing—a multi-sport ambition virtually unprecedented in motorsports history.
• Stewart's 1997 season, in which he won both the Indy 500 and the CART championship, is widely regarded as one of the most dominant single seasons in American open-wheel racing history.