Stewart pleased with NASCAR’s changes

Thursday, Jan. 30, 2003 | 9:56 a.m.

Life has not changed dramatically for Tony Stewart in the two months since he won the NASCAR Winston Cup championship.

Neither has Tony Stewart.

The 31-year-old Indiana native still can be brusque one moment and downright charming the next. Both sides were on display this week during his two-day test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

If the subject was racing, he patiently and politely answered reporters' questions. When the line of questioning moved -- even slightly -- into his off-track problems of last season, his answers became curt and sarcastic.

This, clearly, is not your father's Winston Cup champion.

For the most part, however, Stewart was in good spirits Tuesday and Wednesday while putting his new Home Depot Chevrolet through its paces on the 1.5-mile superspeedway.

Although Stewart and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Bobby Labonte are switching from Pontiacs to Chevys this season, Stewart said the transition is not as extreme as one would imagine.

"If you look at the new Pontiac, it's a totally different car than it was last year anyway and (the Grand Prix) and the Monte Carlo are real similar anyway," Stewart said.

"If you were going to switch manufacturers, this was the year to do it, just from the standpoint that Pontiac, their body style is real similar to the Monte Carlo and the fact that we were both having to change (body styles) ... it's probably the best time to do it."

Stewart applauded NASCAR's attempt to make the body styles of the four manufacturers (Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford and Pontiac) more uniform.

"I think (the rules change) is going to put it more back into the drivers' and the teams' hands, in all reality. It's the way it should be. I think NASCAR's doing a good job of making sure that there's not one manufacturer that has a clear-cut advantage over anybody.

"The more they make these cars similar to each other, the more it puts it in the hands of the people that matter the most -- it puts it in the crews' hands and the drivers' hands. That's who should win the races each week: the team that does the best job preparing the car and the driver that does the best job on the racetrack, not somebody who luckily has the right manufacturer car for that week."

Stewart, who added the Winston Cup championship to his sprint car and Indy Racing League titles, bristled when he was asked if he felt pressure to repeat as champion.

"I've said it a hundred times and I'll say it a hundred and one (times): I don't feel like there is a lot of pressure right now," Stewart said. "After the season we had last year, I think we've proven that we can pretty much go through the worst of circumstances and still win a championship so we don't have to prove that to anybody anymore.

"We don't have to answer that question, as far as 'can we win?' We've proven it; we've done it now. We're still working just as hard as everybody -- that's why we're here right now -- but at the same time, that's what lets us concentrate on just having a good time this year and going back and having fun racing."