FONANTA, Calif. -- A Rolling Stone article about Tony Stewart leaves little to the imagination from his "tighty-whiteys" to comments about women.
For anyone who might be offended by Stewart's comments or anything else in the story, the two-time series champion has some advice:
"Don't read it,'' Stewart said. "Rolling Stone is an edgy magazine. It was an edgy article. Nobody forces that in front of anybody, so if you don't like what you're reading, don't read it. Don't pick it up."
A Rolling Stone reporter shadowed Stewart at Phoenix and Talladega in April. The story notes how Stewart "is a throwback to racing's older era of bootleggers and brawlers."
The story also states that "the only thing Stewart enjoys more than a race car and a fight, it seems, is women." Soon after that, the story quotes Stewart and a friend talking about women and using slang.
"I think some of that was stretched a little further in talks that were more behind closed doors than it really is," Stewart said when asked if the story accurately portrayed him. "It was casual joking conversations that ended up coming out that weren't necessarily the way it was put on paper. When you &ellipses; grant access to somebody like that and give them that kind of access, you open yourself up for things like that to happen."
NOT WORRIED: Although Petty Enterprises searches for sponsorship, its new chairman, Barry Baker, says the cars will have funding.
Baker is the operating partner of Boston Ventures, which purchased Petty Enterprises earlier this summer. One of his group's main jobs is to find a replacement sponsor for Bobby Labonte's team with Cheerios/General Mills leaving after the season. The team continues to search for sponsorship for a second car that could be driven by someone other than Kyle Petty. If that happens, there would need to be sponsorship to run Petty in a third car in some races next year.
"If you've looked at the companies that we've owned over the years, Motown Records, Six Flags, we're very used to the advertising sponsorship business, so we're not panicked, and we manage a couple of billion in assets," Baker said of the sponsorship challenge the Pettys face. "Would I have loved to have had Cheerios? We would have. Are they the only advertiser? They're not. And, so we'll manage to find one or two."
NATIONWIDE SATURDAY NIGHT: Kyle Busch was dominant on the 2-mile oval at Auto Club Speedway Saturday night, leading 144 of the 150 laps to race off with his seventh Nationwide Series victory of the season.
Busch easily held off Sprint Cup rival Carl Edwards on a pair of late-race restarts, piling up his record 18th NASCAR victory of the season, including eight in the Cup and three in the Craftsman Truck Series.
Edwards, the defending Nationwide champion who is locked in a three-way points battle this season with leader Clint Bowyer and Brad Keselowski, finished second, followed by Brian Vickers, Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray, rookie Joey Logano and Bowyer.
Keselowski had a long stop for repairs after his engine quit and wound up 33rd. That left him in second, 204 points behind Bowyer and 18 ahead of Edwards.
PIT STOPS: Tickets remain for Friday's Nationwide race and Saturday's Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway. Cup tickets are priced at $80-$90 and can be purchased by going to www.rir.com or calling 1-866-455-7223.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com
Not all of the newspaper's content appears online.
*There is a fee for downloading some older articles.