Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Stewart has second thoughts about racing in Indy 500

Tuesday, May 25, 2004 | 9:33 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.

After his whirlwind tour Sunday of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Tony Stewart might be rethinking his decision last summer to sign a long-term contract extension with Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series.

Although Stewart said his allegiance is to his Nextel Cup program, he made it clear Sunday that winning the Indianapolis 500 would mean more to him than another Cup championship or another 17 stock-car victories.

"It's like jungle fever," Stewart said of the Indy "bug." "I've got it bad. I don't think this can be cured in a couple of weeks."

Stewart's passion for the Indy 500 was rekindled Sunday when what started out as a casual visit to the Speedway turned into a near attempt to qualify one of A.J. Foyt's backup cars for Sunday's race. Stewart's run in the Toyota-powered car eventually was scrapped because of contractual conflicts; Stewart drives a Chevrolet in the Nextel Cup Series.

Last summer, when Stewart agreed to a contract extension that will have him driving for Joe Gibbs Racing through the 2009 season, he said he would shelve any future attempts to compete at Indy in an open-wheel car as long as he was driving for Gibbs. On Sunday, however, Stewart said he wanted to try to put together a program to drive in next year's Indianapolis 500.

"I'm going to talk to Joe and (my sponsor) Home Depot and see if I can start working on something," Stewart said. "I pretty much made the commitment to those guys that I wasn't going do anything until I decided I was done with the Cup Series.

"They've always said if I wanted to come back and run Indy, that they're behind me 100 percent. I firmly believe their heart is where my heart is, and they want me to be happy and be able to come back here and run Indy."

Stewart, the 1997 Indy Racing League champion, twice has driven in the Indy 500 and the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway on the same day. This year, Robby Gordon is the only driver attempting to run both races.

Stewart credited the IRL for giving him his start in major-league racing, which eventually allowed him to make the move to NASCAR.

"I never would've had my opportunity to race at Indy if it weren't for Tony George and the IRL," Stewart said. "If it had still been under the old format with CART, there never would've been a car owner who called me and said, 'hey, we want you to come up and test for us;' I never would've gotten that opportunity.

"But I think I proved that, with the opportunity, I could do the job. Without the IRL, a lot of guys would never have been able to show what they can do."

But team owner Jack Roush and teammate and race winner Matt Kenseth said they would be surprised if Busch's actions were anything but accidental.

"I didn't see the accident with Kurt and Greg, but I will say that they are two of the best teammates you could ever have," Kenseth said. "I would bet our ($1 million) paycheck tonight that whatever happened was an accident because Kurt and Greg, they go out of their way so much to help me and help each other and help all their teammates that I'm sure whatever happened was an accident.

"I'm sure they're mad about it because they didn't finish, but I'm sure, knowing Kurt, he was probably trying to bump-draft Greg to make him go faster; he does that to me all the time. I guarantee you he was trying to help Greg and himself get going in that lane."

Other winners included Phil Goodwin (Chargers), Don Williams (IMCA Modifieds), Spencer Clark (Pro/Master Legends Cars), Dustin Ash (Semi-Pro Legends Cars), Dave Green (Thunder Roadsters) and Sarah Chelberg (Bandolero Cars).

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