On the night in which it was renamed “Tony Stewart Speedway,” the track’s namesake sent home happy the 200 or so fans that stuck around after a long rain delay for the A-Main feature.
The Columbus native and three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and Hall of Famer won the 25-lap feature in his All Star Circuit of Champions TQ Midgets event late Tuesday night, a few hours after a ceremony to name the track after him.
“I have fun racing with this group,” Stewart said. “We helped put it under our banner with the All-Stars, and we’re trying to keep it growing and getting new members in … I know what that meant to me when I was that age, and for me to be on the other end, I don’t really like getting old necessarily, but it’s part of life, and it sure beats the alternative. I like coming back here, I love racing here and it’s home.”
Following the track dedication ceremony, competitors went through qualifying, the Trophy Dash and two of the three heat races. Then came rain and lighting.
Although the rain didn’t last long, it left some serious wetness on the track. It took about two hours for workers to get it ready to resume racing.
“The fair board is probably the unsung heroes of the night,” Stewart said. “They deserve the biggest pat on the back and the biggest applause for the hard work that they did to get this track back in shape. There’s not many other county fairgrounds in the country that would spend that kind of time and effort and have the knowledge to know what to do to make the track that good.”
Stewart, who had qualified third behind Joey Paxson and Tate Martz and won the Trophy Dash, cruised to victory in Heat 3 after racing resumed at around 10:25 p.m. Tuesday.
Starting fourth in the 25-lap feature, Stewart moved up to third after one lap and second after two laps. He remained in second behind Johnny Heydenreich of Indianapolis through the first caution on Lap 15.
When the race went back to green, Stewart stayed close to Heydenreich until sliding under him in Turn 4 on Lap 19.
“Johnny was fast tonight,” Stewart said. “Johnny has ran sprint cars with us and Silver Crown cars forever. He’s a guy that’s tough and hard to deal with. If he’s fast like he was tonight, he’s really tough. This track, as much as it looks nice and symmetrical, it doesn’t race nice and symmetrical. He was missing the bottom in (Turns) 1 and 2, and he actually started missing in 3 and 4 a little bit, too.”
Stewart held onto the lead through a caution on Lap 23 and on to the checkered flag.
“I didn’t do a very good job on the setup,” Stewart said. “I left my car too loose. I thought it was going to stay a lot stickier than it was in the heat race and didn’t tighten the car up enough for the main. So we weren’t exactly perfect, and (Heydenreich) missed the bottom there a couple too many times. It took me about eight laps to figure the timing out, with where he was sliding up and leaving the bottom open and how I could get myself to take advantage of it and just try to take his line away …
“I honestly didn’t even think we were going to get that opportunity,” he added. “I thought we were probably going to run second to him to be honest, but he kept missing the spots that I thought were really crucial at this track and thought if could at least get a good corner, and then he had a bobble. He got a little too high in 4, and it cost him some time, and that let us get close enough to actually do something with him. But he doesn’t make many mistakes like that, and when he does, we have to take advantage of it because he won’t keep making them very often.”
The third-through-fifth spots stayed pretty much the same for the final 23 laps. Matt Lux of Shelbyville finished third, while Matthew Hedrick of Rushville took fourth and 15-year-old Rylan Gray of Greenfield was fifth.
Stewart’s father Nelson started 12th and finished 10th.
“My dad is 83 years old, and he’s still racing, so I’d say it means I have to be here a long time,” Tony Stewart said. “And I’m OK with that. This is a place that I’ve always loved coming to and racing at. I know it’s humid. I know it’s hot, but there’s nowhere else I’d rather be on a Tuesday night than here with you guys at these fairgrounds at this race track and remembering what it was like to be 8 years old and 8 to 10 to 12 to 15 and be here when the fair came. We would race the go-karts with the three-quarter midgets, and I remember how cool it was to watch these guys run. So that’s why it’s a big deal to me to come home and be able to race at this track.”
