FORT WORTH, Texas – Three-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart officially entered the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame on Friday in a ceremony at The Speedway Club at Texas Motor Speedway.
“I thought you were gonna put a ring on it, but since you didn’t I thought I would put a ring on it. You’re a member of the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame,” Texas Motor Speedway President and General Manager Eddie Gossage joked as he handed Stewart, the longtime bachelor, his Hall of Fame ring.
Stewart authored the most diversely successful career in the history of Texas Motor Speedway. His record of two NASCAR Cup Series wins (2006, ’11), two pole awards (’10, ’14), and a pair of Indy car pole awards (1997, ’98) likely won’t be challenged or matched anytime soon, and his 1,176 laps led at Texas Motor Speedway ranks fourth in track history.
“When I was young, all I wanted to do was figure out how to not work a real job,” Stewart said. “Luckily, I found something that I could do that they would actually pay me to do that I liked to do, which is drive a race car.”
Stewart has done much more at Texas Motor Speedway than succeed on the track. He lends his name to the Tony Stewart Presents the Vankor Texas Sprint Car Nationals, where he finished third in Friday night’s A-Main.
“I’m a glutton for punishment,” he joked when asked about being inducted the day after he completed a race. “I was talking to Chip (Ganassi) and he said, ‘I thought you retired.’ I was like, ‘I thought so too,’ but apparently I don’t understand what the definition of retired is.”
He also has spent the past 12 years putting his skills to work at the Smoke Show fantasy driving camp, which has raised nearly $2 million for Speedway Children’s Charities – Texas Chapter.
“I’ve told Eddie ’til the day I die, as long as he wants to do it, I’m in.”
Other award winners Friday were Scott Dixon (Racer of the Year), Chip Ganassi (Bruton Smith Legend Award), Tyler Reddick (Sportsmanship Award), the late Gerry Fraley (Excellence in Journalism), and Extreme Photography Studios (Major General Thomas Sadler Humanitarian Award).