Tony Stewart slams F1, NASCAR promoters: ‘Heads up their asses’

By Asher Fair | Nov 2, 2019

Tony Stewart, NASCAR (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

Tony Stewart slammed the promoters of the Texas F1 and NASCAR races, saying they “have their heads up their asses” to schedule them on the same weekend.

Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart had the opportunity to get back behind the wheel of a Cup car this week for the first time since he retired at the end of the 2016 season.

Stewart took the #14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, which he drove when it was a Chevrolet from the 2009 season through the 2016 season, for a spin at Circuit of the Americas ahead of this Sunday afternoon’s United States Grand Prix at the track.

The 48-year-old Columbus, Indiana native co-owns Stewart-Haas Racing along with Haas Formula 1 team owner Gene Haas, so the #14 Ford was outfitted with a passenger seat for him to show Haas Formula 1 drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean how to wheel a 3,200-pound stock car around the lone purpose-built Formula 1 track in the United States.

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Unfortunately, a 220-mile drive north of the 20-turn, 3.427-mile (5.515-kilometer) Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin, Texas is Texas Motor Speedway, the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval in Fort Worth, Texas.

Even worse is the fact that Sunday’s United States Grand Prix is scheduled to get underway at 2:10 p.m. ET and that Sunday’s Cup Series round of 8 playoff race, the AAA Texas 500, is scheduled to get underway at 3:00 p.m. ET — at Texas Motor Speedway.

Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage is understandably upset with this, calling it an “assault by Formula 1 on NASCAR”, as Formula 1 only began racing at Circuit of the Americas in 2012 while Texas Motor Speedway has been on the Cup Series schedule since 1997 and has hosted a playoff race in early November since 2005.

Only one time, that time being back in 2014, have these races taken place on the same weekend, and Stewart has joined Gossage in his disapproval of the matter, although he slammed both Formula 1 and NASCAR in doing so, saying that the promoters of these team races “having their heads up their asses”.

Here is what Stewart had to say about the matter, according to Motorsport.

"“I think it is asinine. I think there are two promoters who have their heads up their asses to book it that way. Why would you not take the opportunity to book them on separate weekends and have the opportunity to have the people stay for a week and enjoy two totally different forms of major motorsports?“You would think they would learn the first time. So it shows how big idiots they are.”"

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ABC is set to broadcast the United States Grand Prix live from Circuit of the Americas beginning at 2:05 p.m. ET this Sunday, November 3, and NBC Sports Network is set to broadcast the AAA Texas 500 live from Texas Motor Speedway beginning less than an hour later at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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