When Tony Stewart was a kid, he got free milkshakes at the Dairy Queen on Third Street after he would win a race.
Nearly four decades later, Stewart was ready for another shake. After winning in Tuesday night’s King of the UMRA Three-Quarter Midget race at the Bartholomew County 4-H Fairgrounds with the Dairy Queen logo on the car, he was headed there to see DQ owner and longtime sponsor Bob Franke.
“I totally expect when I get to the Dairy Queen tonight, I get my free shake,” Stewart said. “When I used to win on Saturday night when I was a kid, I got a free chocolate shake, and I’m going to hold him to it tonight.”
Tuesday’s feature race was never in doubt. Stewart took the lead from Joey Paxson on the second lap of the 20-lap event and gradually pulled away to win by nearly a half-lap.
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Stewart figured his main competition would come from his friend and fellow Columbus resident Jason Setser. Setser had moved into second place and was right on Stewart’s bumper following a caution on Lap 2, but Setser spun on Lap 8, bringing out another caution.
From there, Stewart sailed the final 12 laps, which were run under green.
“There were some good cars here tonight, so there’s no guarantees for sure,” Stewart said. “Jason, by far, showed he was the class of the field in qualifying. I kept waiting for Jason com come, and then I saw him in the infield and looked at him and kind of raised my hand like, ‘What happened,’ and he kind of shook his head like, ‘I don’t know.’ I knew we had a better shot when he was in the infield than on the racetrack.”
Setser had the fastest qualifying lap at 16.883 seconds, then finished second to Stewart in the first of three heat races. Matt Lux of Manilla won the second head, and Derek Fisher of Columbus won the final heat.
Paxson, a Connersville resident, finished second in the feature. Rick Robinson of Columbus took third, followed by Tate Martz of Rushville, Aaron Percell of Rushville and points leader Matthew Hedrick, also of Rushville.
Stewart’s 80-year-old father Nelson Stewart finished 12th.
“(Beating Tony) would have taken an Act of God, and I don’t think I’m in that good of graces with Him because I just can’t seem to pull it off,” Nelson Stewart said. “But I enjoyed it.”
By Nelson’s count, this was the fourth time the father and son had raced against each other. The third came two weeks ago when Tony finished third and Nelson 14th on Tony Stewart Night at the Rush County Fair in Rushville.
In that race, Tony Stewart debuted the No. 14 car that Setser and another longtime friend and driver, Ron Combs, built for him. Tuesday’s race was his second in that car – and his first victory.
“This is a car just like Jason Setser’s car that I ran last year and won here with,” Tony Stewart said. “We were working on it last year, and didn’t get it done, and Jason was gracious enough to let me drive that car for him. So we finally got this one done and got to shake it down at Rushville and had a good night there. I’ve been looking forward to this for a year, so it’s fun to do it in my own car.”