"You hire the right people to the right jobs; you really have done your job."
Tony Stewart

"I win a lot of races from the grandstands. It's pretty easy up there."
Paul McMahan

"Things are eclipsing so fast by you around you. Your judgment has to be super, super quick."
Tracy Hines

"If I get the opportunity to race against my boss on Sunday, some day I'd like to try it."
Levi Jones

We attempt first to put Tony Stewart in proper light with his peers and others by mentioning at least once that race car drivers are never wallflowers. Stewart has had a reputation for escaping emotions during his motorsports past but that known behavior has mellowed in recent years before skeptical cameras. As with many public lives covered by many small camera lenses, even wide-angle lenses, ubiquitous video eyes don't tell life stories much less complete stories.

Stewart's success has brought national attention and widespread scrutiny too when his anger visibly erupted during some races past. That's news. Much less attention gathered when the same person donated large chunks of money for charitable purposes like Kyle Petty's Victory Junction Gang Camp. It seems that's only notable. "Smoke" doesn't sweat over this inequity, he'd simply rather be known as a dedicated racer even as his good deeds are sometimes overlooked.

Stewart's giving back is a matter of public record and proof of his real intentions exist in more than one way, but one of his favorite ways to fulfill his generous veins is his Chevy Bass Pro Shops USAC and WoO sprint car team. He turns and returns to speed.

Stewart and TSR team members tell a fast story.

Interviewer: Dwight Drum

Tony Stewart

I interviewed your USAC team in Tampa. Do you have a comment on what they are doing this year?
"Yeah. I'm excited. Levi (Jones) won in Tampa at one of the biggest sprint car races of the year so far to date. Our USAC guys started off the year with Chevy winning a $10,000 race in Tampa already. They're doing a great job and we got new leadership with Jay Drake there. We've got somebody in there who has been there as a driver and is very organized. I think we're going to have a lot of good things come out of that team this year."

Does it get easier as time goes on being a boss?
"Yeah. When you have people in the right place - for sure."

As a sprint car team owner do you feel you delegate as well as you drive?
"I'm pretty good at letting them do their own thing. They pretty much treat me like we do Joe Gibbs. They don't let me touch the race cars very much. They tell me how much money they need to pay the bills. I don't know I think when I started to get into the ownership side was actually after I started with Joe. I think what I learned from Joe (Gibbs) is that you hire the right people to the right jobs. You really have done your job. The best thing to do at that point is let them do what they do best. I've tried to adopt a lot of the attitudes that Joe has with the race teams. That's something that I feel that I really owe Joe a lot for is just teaching me how to be a car owner.

"I enjoy that side of it. I enjoy being able to give back to the series that helped me get where I am. It allows me to stay involved in those series. As time goes on when the time comes that I step away from the steering wheel side. I've already set myself up to stay involved in the sport that way."

Your ability to manage and balance your time, did you bring that with you to racing or did you acquire it?
"I'll be honest, I've acquired it, I think from Joe Gibbs. That's something that has been one of the most impressive traits that I see in Joe and that's his ability to organize the right people to do the right jobs. I've learned a lot from him. As a car owner it has transferred and translated over to our race teams. You know I don't have to be there every day. Obviously I can't because of my obligations with the Cup Series, but we've got great people in place. We just hired Jay Drake as a team a manager for the USAC teams and obviously hiring a guy that has been a driver in the past is going to help from that standpoint. Jimmy Carr, Paul McMahan's crew chief is a great leader. He's been with the World of Outlaws organization since we started it in 2001. He's a great leader also so having those two guys in place and Bobby Barth and Bubby Jones the crew chiefs for Levi and Tracy, having those two guys in place really gives us the leadership we need.

"When I feel like I need to intervene in something and obviously I have that ability but for the most part I sit down with those four guys and explain to them this is how I want things done and this is how I want the organization to be run. They pretty much take the blueprint that I've given them and they take it and make it better. It's all about having the right people in the right places. That's something this winter we've really worked hard at is making sure we've got the right people in the right places to give Levi, Tracy and Paul the right opportunity to go out and feel like they have the ability to win every race that they go out and run every night."

Do you look for some of your qualities and traits when you select a driver for your teams?
"I try to find somebody who is a little less feisty than me. You know I'm not sure I use myself as a benchmark. You look at Josh Wise last year and J.J Yeley when they were here in USAC, I almost feel they were better than I was in USAC, so I just feel I've got an ability talent that I've learned through Joe about learning how to find the right guys and whether it's a crew chief or a driver it's just something I have with doing the right things with the right people."

Paul McMahan

Can you compare the challenges you have now to the challenges when you started racing?
"I put the most pressure on myself. There's nobody that puts more pressure on me but myself. The only challenge is that I got a lot more people, reporters like you, asking me what about my boss. He's no different from any other boss I've ever had. He's just a little more high-profile than the rest of them."

If you could put a fan in a sprint car or stock car, what would you explain to them that they didn't expect?
"I've taken people for rides in two-seaters and when they get out they don't believe it. They can sit up in the stands and think they can do it real easy. Once they climb in the back of a two-seater with us, they got a new perspective on racing. I've taken several wives and went for a ride with me and when they got done they said they'll never tell their husband how to drive again from the grandstands. I win a lot of races from the grandstands. It's pretty easy up there. Once you strap yourself in a cockpit, it's a little bit difference."

Tracy Hines

What's it like working with Tony Stewart?
"I don't know why everybody wants to know that. You know just that the team itself. Tony's going to be around five or six times out of 100 races. I think for us the more important thing is working with the team itself, working with the great sponsor that we have in Chevrolet and Bass Pro Shops, everybody on board with Tony Stewart Racing team. That's the most important thing for us really is what we're doing everyday in the shop."

You've had a lot of challenges in the past. How do you compare racing sprint cars to your past challenges?
"It's probably not a challenge. This is what I do for a living. I drive race cars. I needed to come back. When you run USAC and open-wheel division unless you win a lot of races you can't make any money. Naturally I had to come back to run all three divisions full time and looking at the opportunities available the Tony Stewart Racing Team is the one that had all the options. With Chevrolet and Bass Pro Shops on board I knew we had the funding and everything we needed. That was the direction we wanted to go."

Levi Jones

Can you explain what it's like to be around Tony Stewart?
"Nobody sees that he donates to all sorts of things. He built a park in Columbus, (Indiana) just all sorts of stuff that you never see. He's not necessarily the type of person that wants people to see that. He does it. He's just a racer. He's almost like a 12-year-old kid that just loves to race. That's the bottom line to Tony Stewart."

Can you talk about being young like some NASCAR rookies and having a lot of experience?
"I think that's one of Tony's biggest deals, the guys having experience when they move up there. As a veteran he wants to race against guys every week that know how to race and have experience. They all definitely have top notch equipment. He just wants to race against guys that have experience. He feels like running these cars like he did and winning races and championships are how you become the best racer you can."

For continued interview moments with McMahan, Hines and Jones, please click on MORE