Stewart says he’s not about to coast to title

Wednesday, Oct. 8, 1997 | 9:39 a.m.

TONY STEWART'S hard-charging driving style earned him a 10-point lead in the Indy Racing League points race heading into the season-ending Las Vegas 500K at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Nonetheless, it comes as somewhat of a surprise that the 26-year-old announced he has no intention of playing it conservatively Saturday night on the 1.5-mile superspeedway.

"I don't know why we would change our program now," said Stewart, who needs only an eighth-place finish to wrap up the IRL drivers championship.

"Going out and trying to win each race is what got us in this position in points anyway so when it's working for you like that ... it's like trying to fix something that's not broke, you just don't mess with it."

That, however, may come as news to Team Menard owner John Menard.

"Running real hard is probably not the best way to finish the race -- especially at that track," Menard said of Las Vegas' high-banked tri-oval. "We're set up to run conservatively. We all know what we have to do (and) I hope we can resist the temptation to run harder than we need to run. If we finish that race, we'll probably win the championship."

Stewart, who leads Las Vegan Davey Hamilton in the points battle, said he feels he can run hard and play it safe at the same time. But a lot of his race-day strategy will depend on how Hamilton is running.

"We're going to try to go for the pole like we do at every race and if we can go out and lead the race and win the race, we'll do it," Stewart said. "We'll just have to see what the race pace is and see what situations come up with Davey.

"We definitely have to pay attention to what Davey does and that's going to be the one thing that's probably going to be different than a normal race -- we will be watching everything that he does."

Stewart said that being in position to win the IRL championship in his first full season racing Indy cars is something of a surprise to him.

"Absolutely -- but not from the standpoint that I'm not with the right team because this team is definitely a championship-caliber team," said the USAC short-track ace. "I guess I'm surprised from the standpoint that, with no more experience than I have in Indy cars, that I'm in this situation.

"At the same time, you look at Davey and we basically have the same kind of experience and we came up through the same ranks and we're both sitting here in the same situation. It's kind of ironic that we both ended up in the same place at the same time."

Stewart's success on the IRL circuit -- he has one win and five other top-10 finishes this season -- has not gone unnoticed. The Indiana native recently signed with Joe Gibbs Racing to drive full time on the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series next year with the prospect of driving a second Gibbs entry on the Winston Cup circuit in 1999.

Stewart, who is coming off a third-place finish in the Busch Series race last Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, will continue driving for Menard in the IRL next season while he is running the Busch Series. Stewart said he hopes to follow in the footsteps of NASCAR regulars Jeff Gordon and Ken Schrader, who made the transition from open-wheel racing to NASCAR.

"Before the IRL started, if you wanted to move up into real professional racing, that was the only thing that was out there," Stewart said of NASCAR. "I've always had an interest in NASCAR racing, I guess since Kenny Schrader was the first to go down from the open-wheel cars and then when Jeff went down, he really opened up a lot of doors because that's where we wanted to be."

Where Stewart wants to be after 200 laps Saturday night is in victory circle at Las Vegas Motor Speedway -- celebrating both a race victory and a series championship. He said Team Menard has given him the equipment to do just that.

"This team has given me fast race cars every race and I feel we have a really good package this week," he said. "We tested real well here last year with the Lola and with the new car and motors (this year), I think we were second quickest in testing. We were very happy with the way the car was handling and very happy with the way the motor was performing.

"The speeds are slower, obviously, (because of the new cars) but as far as being up in the speed charts, last year we qualified second but we didn't do it until qualifying -- we weren't even in the top six before qualifying. We really feel like we come here a lot better prepared than we were last year."

* NOTES: Las Vegas Motor Speedway is the only superspeedway in either the Indy Racing League or PPG CART World Series where Firestone Tires has yet to post a victory. Cars running on Firestones have won 19 of 24 races -- including 16 in a row -- in the two Indy-car series this season. ... Team Menard driver Robbie Buhl will pay a visit to the University Medical Center's pediatric ward Thursday morning as a representative of the Racing for Kids organization. Racing for Kids is designed to bring attention and funding to the health care of children. ... The Indy Racing League Crew, a fan organization that supports the IRL, will distribute ballots for the Most Valuable Driver award. The IRL Crew will have a booth set up Saturday night on the midway behind the front-straight grandstand.