Sun Jul 27, 2008 6:26 pm EDT
If this is what Tony Stewart's Sprint Cup ownership is going to be like, NASCAR's going to have its hands full real fast. At last Thursday night's USAC race at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indiana, Smoke went googly-eyed crazy on an officiating crew, assaulting -- in the legal, if not the racing, sense -- at least two of them. Seems that the crew wouldn't let Stewart's driver Tracey Hines back onto the track after a wreck, and things got really ugly from there. A civvies-clad Smoke came charging into the fray faster than you could ever imagine him moving -- he's the blur in the Home Depot orange oval below:

He then proceeded to yank the headphones off of one official:

He stormed off, and en route, shoved another official right in the chest:

And then seethed for awhile. (You can check out the full video right here at WTHR-Indianapolis's website.)
Hmmm. Wonder why nobody made a big deal of this one at Sunday's Brickyard telecast? Not quite the kinder, gentler politically correct image that Smoke has been trying to project now that he's an owner, huh?
On one hand, it's an incredibly stupid and immature move that's going to get him fined, without a doubt. On the other, Smoke's looking like a serious challenger to Mark Cuban and the '70s-era Ted Turner for most awesomest owner ever.
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1616 Comments
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Greatly disappointing that Bestwik or the black guy didn't ask Rusty about his comments earlier in the week regarding Newman.
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You go Tony-give em' Hell!
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Not to mention he looks twice the size of one of those officials....
Oh. Yeah. He is..
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Yep, someone I'd want my kid looking up to, no doubt! (not!)
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There was a time years ago when Nascar was made up of more people like Tony instead of a bunch of gussied up politically correct rich kids from the Bandelero series.
Doesn't Tony look a lot like AJ in this clip? Reminds me of the time AJ whacked Cheever upside the head!
I'm sure he will tone down his antics a bit when he is in his Nascar owner/driver trim, but keep in mind the reason he has USAC and WOO teams is so he can do his thing, and that's exactly what he does!
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http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/blog/from_the_marbles/post/Tony-Stewart-s-gonna-need-ID-to-cash-that-check?urn=nascar,86288
Come on by more often. We hit all sides of the driving world.
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