Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Stewart a man of few words after failing at Indy

Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2001 | 11:46 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Tony Stewart's new, politically correct mantra must be "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

Moments after finishing a disappointing 17th in Sunday's Brickyard 400, Stewart was uncharacteristically quiet as he hurried to a van that was waiting to take him away from Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

"Bad day," was all Stewart had to say to reporters.

When a pack of reporters tried to question an obviously frustrated Stewart, the driver's bodyguards intervened and pushed a television reporter away from Stewart.

A day earlier, one of Stewart's bodyguards reportedly pushed another reporter away from Stewart as he was making his way through the garage area following the International Race of Champions event.

After running with the leaders -- and leading once for three laps -- for the first three-quarters of the race, Stewart brushed the wall in turn two late in the race and slipped out of the top 10.

Stewart left his crew chief, Tony Zipadelli, to answer questions.

"He's just like me and the rest of our 22 guys (on the team): just disgusted and frustrated," Zipadelli said. "We had a top-five car all day. We should have been there (but) we got a top-20 finish.

"It's not acceptable this late in the season. We need to do better than that. Could we have done things differently? I don't know. It was just one of those things. It wasn't our day."

Stewart, who entered the race fourth in NASCAR Winston Cup points and trailed Jeff Gordon by 261 points, slipped to fifth and now is 324 points behind Gordon with 15 races remaining.

Stewart led for three laps Sunday; he led 13 laps in the Indy 50 in May before finishing sixth.

Stewart's 17th-place finish Sunday was his worst in three Brickyard 400 starts.

Roger Penske, an 11-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 as a car owner, served as Newman's spotter during Sunday's race. Penske owned the car driven to victory by Helio Castroneves in this year's Indy 500.

Newman, a native of South Bend, Ind., qualified a surprising fifth in his first trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He finished 31st after making contact with pole-sitter Jimmy Spencer and then hitting the wall in turn four on lap 32.

"We had a great weekend all together: great practice, great qualifying," Newman said. "I think we had a really great racecar at the start of the race.

"I had a slight bit of help from Jimmy (in the incident) but I can't blame it all on him. We slightly touched and it sent me up into the wall. I just told (my crew) that this is probably going to happen again next year, so let's stay in, get some laps and get some experience."

It was Busch's third consecutive win in the Late Model division and sixth in 11 starts this season.