Smoke screen

By Dan Sipocz

Tony Stewart, aka Smoke, has set up a picture-perfect smoke screen. He's indicated that he desperately wants to drive for Chevrolet once again and as soon as he possibly can. Yes, that means, even if it he has to ask out or buy out the final year of his deal with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Stewart has also had discussions about the possibility of returning the IRL someday. Despite his recent declaration that he feels that door is pretty much closed, especially since he doesn't want to just invade the IRL for the month of May every season to try and win his much desired Indianapolis 500 trophy.

So what does the future hold for Stewart? Some say he's at Gibbs until he retires. Others say he'll be leaving Gibbs, possibly as early as the end of this season, while still others say he'll stay to fulfill his contract and leave at the end of next season.

The smoke screen has been set up beautifully by Stewart. He continues to talk and say all the right things, but that only leads to speculation as to what will happen and what is currently happening. I'd say he has certainly learned how to play with the media.

In fact, I'm wondering if Stewart has ever spent time with some college basketball coaches. College basketball coaches are notorious for talking to the media and never giving them anything worth using. It's hysterical actually. For instance, head basketball coach at Valparaiso University, my alma mater as of December, talks forever about something and never really says anything worth using in a story. Sure, he's great for a quote about how hard the team is working and how much fun he's having, but that isn't exactly great reading material, let alone a good job of reporting.

Stewart is doing the same thing to the motorsports media. He's saying all the right things to string it out. Stewart has talked about looking at all his options. He hasn't indicated who he is talking to or what they are talking about. For all we know Stewart could be talking to different car owners about what kind of lunch deals he can get. You never know.

In any event, Stewart's smoke screen is beautiful. It's smoky enough to make it difficult for anyone to really figure out what's going on behind closed doors and what is being discussed. Yet, the air is still clear enough to see Stewart desires to be in a Chevy, for he is a Chevy man.

Time will only clear out the smoke screen, but for what it's worth, my money is on Stewart leaving Gibbs for either Hendrick Motorsports or Richard Childress Racing. I can see Hendrick willing to provide Stewart with all the equipment, sponsorship backing, and personnel needed to contend for championships while Stewart owns a majority of the race team (thus avoiding the 4 teams per owner rule set by NASCAR). I can also see Childress giving Stewart partial to half ownership in his recently announced fourth team, as Childress no doubt wouldn't mind having another partner for his organization.

The big loser in all of this is Gibbs Racing. They're losing a two-time champion and a guy who has gone from rebel and bad boy to ... well, less of a rebel and bad boy.