Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Stewart puts Winston Cup ahead of Indy 500

Tuesday, April 22, 2003 | 9:36 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Tony Stewart on Monday laid to rest rumors that he would replace injured driver Dario Franchitti in next month's Indianapolis 500.

Stewart responded to a weekend report on ESPN.com that he would fill in for Franchitti on Michael Andretti's Indy Racing League team by issuing a three-paragraph statement. In it, the reigning NASCAR Winston Cup champion said his decision not to run Indy was a matter of "priorities."

"It's flattering to know that my name still comes up this time of year as someone teams want to have in their car at Indy," Stewart said. "But as I've said from the beginning of the season, I am not going to compete in the Indianapolis 500 and my reasons are still the same.

"I need to take care of what I signed up to do here with Joe Gibbs Racing. There are 200 employees at Joe Gibbs Racing, making all sorts of sacrifices to provide me with everything I need to go out and win races. And when you go back and forth between Indy and Charlotte, it puts a strain on the entire team. As much as my heart wants to do it, I can't justify putting my personal ambitions ahead of the sacrifices made by my race team."

Stewart, the 1997 IRL champion, twice has competed in the Indy 500 and the NASCAR Winston Cup Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway near Charlotte, N.C., which are run on the same day. In 1999, his Winston Cup rookie season, Stewart started 24th and finished ninth at Indy and in 2001 he started seventh and finished sixth at the Brickyard.

Stewart's best finish in the Indy 500 came in 1997 when he finished fifth for IRL team owner John Menard. An Indiana native, Stewart won the 1996 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year award after capturing the pole and leading the first 44 laps of the race before engine failure relegated him to a 24th-place finish.

Although Stewart said he still has a desire to win the Indy 500, he said his priority now is his NASCAR career.

"I don't have to prove I can win that race," Stewart said of the 500. "I want to win that race really bad but there are a lot of guys that haven't won the Indy 500. I always had the feeling that if I never won that race, it was going to be a void in my career; I don't feel that way anymore.

"I'm pretty proud of what I've accomplished in 24 years of racing. If I get a chance to go back (to Indy) someday and the circumstances are right, I will. I'm not going to say I'm getting wiser as I'm getting older, because I'm not sure that has ever been the case, but at least I'm trying to take care of the people who are working hard for me each week."

Franchitti ended up with a fracture in his lower back in a motorcycle accident on April 4 in his native Edinburgh, Scotland.

"It's been a long time since I've thrown a baseball," Stewart said. "I've thrown a softball some but that was awhile ago, too. I'm definitely going to have to practice a little bit."

Also to be inducted in the 2003 class are Los Angeles Times motor sports writer Shav Glick, early motor sports pioneer Margo Burke and Evergreen (Wash.) Speedway promoter Bob Beadle.

Spectator gates open at 6 p.m., qualifying begins at 6:30 and racing starts at 7:15. Admission ranges from $3 for children between 6 and 12 years of age to $10 for adults.