Media Tour Stop No. 2: Stewart-Haas Racing

After lunch, the media piled into a trio of buses for the first field trip of the week, a short excursion to the Stewart-Haas Racing shop.

No real news came out of the SHR stop, except a slimmer-looking Tony Stewart mentioned he now eats five small meals per day instead of two big meals.

For some reason, the idea of a fitter Stewart proved to be very attractive to reporters, who served up a variety of appetizer-quality questions about his new regimen.

The main course was to be whichever reporter dared to ask Stewart about his Australia incident; after all, Stewart would surely eat that person alive.

The way Stewart likes to operate is this: If he entertains questions about a controversy, he wants to do it once. Ask him about it a week later, and he may not be as accommodating.

Since Stewart addressed the matter at length during preseason testing at Daytona, any reporter who followed up in an attempt to seek more information figured to out of luck.

And perhaps beheaded.

But when one brave soul finally broached the Australia subject with Stewart, it actually didn’t turn out so bad.

Reporter: “I know you’ve addressed the Australia situation, but for those of us who weren’t on the conference call, could you talk a little bit about that?”

Stewart: “We covered it in Daytona and it’s been transcribed, so...”

And that was all Stewart said on the microphone, though he told Associated Press writer Jenna Fryer at the end of the session that he didn’t know the current status of the situation or whether the other man involved in the fight would press charges.

Anyway, Stewart kept his cool and appeared relaxed throughout the session, which makes him 2-for-2 in not snapping at any reporters this year.

But as we know, it’s still early.

Newman displayed his typical dry humor, making short, witty comebacks to questions. When one reporter asked about “bad guys” in the sport – Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, etc., Newman volunteered to be this year’s bad guy.

Why?

Because, he reasoned, Busch wins a ton of races and Keselowski won the Nationwide Series title last year – so it can’t be that bad.

All in all, the Stewart-Haas Racing stop was a finely executed media session that served everyone well.

After a bit of writing time (which is going on now – hence this blog), the media will hop back into the buses for a Penske Racing visit.