Former Cup champ Stewart gets seat time on LVMS dirt

After a grueling 10-month NASCAR season, the last place you would expect to find one of America's most famous drivers would be on a racetrack over a holiday weekend.

But that's exactly where Tony Stewart was Friday and will be again today when racing begins at 6 p.m. in the Las Vegas Sprint Car Nationals.

The two-time Cup champion, who finished seventh this year for his Stewart-Haas Racing team, is at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's Dirt Track driving one of his three sprint cars in the American Sprint Car Racing Series.

Stewart not only qualified for the Friday night's championship race but dominated to win after taking the lead midway through the 25-lap race.

Stewart, 39, is joined by his regular drivers, Donny Schatz and Jessica Zemken, and about 80 others on the half-mile oval.

"I tried to run as many races as I could this year," said Stewart, who is making his 15th and 16th Sprint Car starts this weekend.

"Everybody assumes if you come from Cup to race these cars that it makes you the favorite to win, but with the crowd of cars and the caliber of drivers we have here, I'll be happy just to make each A Main. That would be a win for me."

Zemken, 24, of Sprakers, N.Y., is the only woman to win an ASCS feature. She is in her second season with Stewart.

"She is very talented," Stewart said. "And unlike me, she can do all the work on the racecar."

Schatz, a four-time World of Outlaws champion, joined Stewart this year and placed second in the series.

Stewart Racing won the USAC National Drivers Championship with Bryan Clauson, 21, of Noblesville, Ind., last weekend at Irwindale, Calif. The title earned Clauson a full-time ride next year with Sam Schmidt Motorsports in the IndyCar Lights Series.

Levi Jones won this year's USAC Silver Crown and Sprint Car championships to give Stewart's open-wheel operation 13 titles under race director Jimmy Carr.

"(My teams) always operate independently from my Cup stuff," said Stewart, who won Cup championships for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2002 and 2005. "I learned from Joe years ago that you hire good people. I don't have to baby-sit the team; I have people I can trust who know how I like things to be done."

Stewart plans to leave for Southern California on Sunday and return to Las Vegas early next week to participate in NASCAR Champion's Week.

Soon after the banquet, Stewart will leave for a monthlong vacation in Australia that, of course, will include racing.

"It's summer over there, and I don't have to sit around in the winter and not be able to be outside," he said. "And I get to race."

Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247.