Tony Stewart, The Business Man!

[DebWilliams-GFN]

By: Deb Williams

Recently, I was asked: “Why would Tony Stewart think he had a better chance of winning a championship at Stewart-Haas Racing than at Joe Gibbs Racing?” It was then I realized that many people probably viewed Stewart's decision as one made by a driver, not a businessman.

Make no mistake, the 37-year-old Columbus, Ind., resident is a businessman.
He simply doesn't flaunt it. Instead, his two NASCAR Cup, one Indy Racing League, USAC Sprint Car, Silver Crown, two USAC Midget, World Karting Association and International Karting Foundation championships, cause everyone to think of Stewart strictly as a very successful race car driver.

Team ownership, however, is nothing new to Stewart. He already possesses two World of Outlaw and two USAC Midget Sprint Silver Crown teams based in Brownsburg, Ind. It's also well known that he owns Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. However, did you know he co-owns Paducah [Ky.] International Raceway and Macon [Ill.] Speedway with veteran driver Ken Schrader?

Stewart's office that's the flagship for his businesses is in Indianapolis, as is his merchandising company. He co-owns his Ohio trucking company – TSM Logistics – with Steve Mox. CustomWorks is Stewart's R/C car company he moved to Denver, N.C., from Bakersfield, Calif., after he purchased it seven years ago. True Speed Communication, a public relations/marketing company, is run by Mike Arning. Stewart's planes are assigned to his aviation company, his fan club is under his control, and he has his not-for-profit foundation.

Yes, Stewart is an entrepreneur, but it's not something he ever envisioned for himself. In his own words, “I barely graduated high school, in my opinion.” He took no business courses and he didn't view himself as a good student.
“I'm not the brains behind all these companies,” Stewart explained.

“But we have learned some major lessons and that's hire the right people to do the right jobs, and you don't have to be a great businessman. You just have to know how to find the right people and when you get them in place, you let them do their job.

“There's part of every one of those companies that I have my 2 cents worth in and I put my hand in. It's not that I'm totally stupid and totally hands off about all of them, but I couldn't go to Eldora and run an event if I didn't have the major principles who work there all the time. I wouldn't know how to do it all. But I've been doing this for 28 years, so every time I go to Eldora, no matter who I talk to, I can see and understand from their point of view.”

Track ownership came earlier for Stewart than he planned. One day he received a telephone call from the couple that owned Eldora. They needed to step away from ownership due to health reasons and felt Stewart was the ideal person to take over. Schrader later approached him about co-owning Paducah and Macon.

“Ken Schrader, who only ranks second underneath A.J. Foyt on my list as far as heroes go, when he came to me and said, 'Hey, would you like to be a part of owning Paducah with me and later on Macon, Ill.?' to do something with Kenny, it didn't matter if we were going to get into a dog grooming business,” Stewart said. “To do it with Kenny was what I wanted. So that's how we ended up going from one race track to three.”

Stewart raced at Eldora twice a year as a youngster and noted it was fun to go there.

“I've been there as a spectator, a crew member, a driver, a car owner, and now as a race track owner, so the fun part for me is going down in the pits on a four-wheeler and saying hi to everybody,” Stewart said. “It's fun to listen to their comments and ... the input from the fans. At the end of the night, if they leave and they've got smiles on their faces or you see them jump up in the stands because the race is exciting, that's what you like. That's what I love about it, to watch people have fun and have a good time.”

The hard-nosed racer also says that being a track owner has given him a better understanding of NASCAR and why certain decisions are made.

“It doesn't mean I've cracked the secret code of NASCAR and figured everything out, cause I haven't done that at all, but you understand them better,” Stewart said. “I think it's definitely helped me.”

Stewart no longer owns greyhounds, because “I got tired of hearing people give me a hard time about racing and owning greyhounds.” So Stewart took his 60 dogs and found good homes for them.

True Speed Communication was the result of Stewart wanting to keep Arning as his publicist when Home Depot decided it wanted to change public relations firms. Stewart discussed the situation with Home Depot, hired Arning and True Speed Communication was born.

“It went from having the Home Depot account to accounts in Grand Am and, obviously, with our USAC and World of Outlaw teams, plus the other NASCAR accounts that we have,” Stewart commented.

Stewart's R/C car company ownership resulted from a seven-week USAC stint in California in 1994.

“I'd been racing R/C cars in the winter anyway, because there wasn't a lot to do,” Stewart explained. “That's what we did at the end of the season, went straight into R/C racing and went until we started our season back up.

“I bought a car from CustomWorks, which was based in Bakersfield [Calif.] at the time. When I went out there for seven weeks, I took all of my R/C car stuff with me. When I got out there I met the two guys who owned it, who have since become two of my best friends. They decided they were going to sell the company, so I had a hard time thinking that somebody might have it that wouldn't continue with the company the way they would run it. So I ended up buying the company, moving it to North Carolina, and a mutual friend of ours who had worked for them in the past has been running it ever since.”

For Stewart, the enjoyment of business ownership comes when he can focus on each one.

“Every week I'm not involved with Eldora, Macon or Paducah, or my race teams, the trucking company very much, and it's because I have a full-time job. The fun part for me is going and seeing the people that run these companies and work for us, showing up and watching them do what they do best, their jobs,” Stewart commented. “It's fun to show up and see things you've invested in. It's learning from Joe Gibbs that it's putting the right people in the right places to where you don't have to be there every week and look over their shoulders. You know you've got people there that can handle it, whether you're there or not.”
With his open-wheel teams, Stewart has enjoyed watching four of his people advance to “bigger and better things.”

“That's probably one of the most gratifying parts of it, knowing you helped other guys have the same opportunity that you had in the past,”
Stewart continued.

Stewart admitted that owning various businesses played a key role in the planning of his future in Cup.

“You always sit there and wonder as a driver, 'What happens if I get hurt today and my racing career is over? What am I going to do tomorrow?' I guess the great thing for me, if I went and got a physical today and he told me I would die if I got in that race car and barely bumped the wall, I know I've got stuff I can do and I wouldn't be sitting at home wondering what I would do with the rest of my life,” Stewart said. “I've got all these things I'm involved in, all these things I'm passionate about, so it's not a question mark what happens that day when I say, 'OK. I'm hanging my helmet up for the last time.' I'll just have more time to put into them [businesses] at that point.”

Needless to say, when Stewart became a co-owner in Stewart-Haas Racing he wasn't searching for a better team where he could win another championship.
Tony Stewart the businessman was planning for the future.

[Ind14]

This was a great article. Alot of time was spent on finding all the details. Way to write a story.