NASCAR's Driving Force

Stewart became a star by winning the more glamorous Indy Racing League title in 1997. But he switched to NASCAR in part because there are more races. And more challenging races. If you're driving an Indy car at 220 m.p.h., he says, the aerodynamics are so good, you can pretty much floor it all the time. "You're thinking about what you're going to have for dinner while you're sitting there," he says. Stock cars are heavier, 700-h.p. Neanderthals, custom-built throwback machines. "At the end of a straightaway, you've got to use the brakes and force 3,400 lbs. to change direction, which it doesn't want to do." And you've got other drivers who think nothing of sitting on your rear bumper, stealing your downdraft, making your car "loose" and sending you flying up the track.

It was the daily pressure to create a winning race car that caused Stewart to pull himself over for a psychological pit stop. "I decided, 'I'm just going to up and go home,'" he said. It wasn't that Stewart disliked Charlotte (memo to Chamber of Commerce: he's still got a place there). It's that he just couldn't get away from the shop, which was only about 15 minutes from his house. So now Stewart spends time between races with his buddies, fishing or riding four-wheelers through the woods. "To be able to maintain a competitive edge, you have to be able to turn it off, reset yourself and then turn it back on again," says Stewart. "It's hard to maintain that intensity all year doing it seven days a week." In the meantime, his crew chief Greg Zipadelli made a series of adjustments to the No. 20 car that has made it a front runner in almost every race. Relaxed mind, fast car. Good combination.

One thing Stewart can't control is his appetite for a race. Any race. He has driven go-karts, three-quarter midgets, full midgets, Grand Am, winged and unwinged sprint cars, trucks, Indy cars. He still drives in races that offer a $1,000 first prize. "I'm a race-car driver," says Stewart. "That's what I do." Just wait until he joins the volunteer fire department back home in Indiana.