Tony Stewart’s legacy is both marked by excellence and marred by controversy

It’s almost fitting in a sense Tony Stewart will close out his NASCAR career by following Jeff Gordon into retirement. Because of their Indiana roots, sprint car racing backgrounds, and that Gordon’s success opened the door for Stewart and others to transition to stock cars, the two multi-time champions are indelibly linked.

One of NASCAR’s biggest stars during its period of record television ratings and attendance, Gordon’s transcendent superstardom earned him a stint as a guest host on Saturday Night Live and various daytime talk shows, being name-dropped in a Nelly song, and being labeled as one of People magazine’s Most Beautiful People.

Stewart never moonlighted as a host on daytime TV. Nor did he ever become a New York City transplant, like Gordon. Because what Stewart was and still is to this day, is a blue-collar racer through and through. And his retirement signifies one of the few remaining drivers left in the sport who truly carries that distinction.

“I love the guy, I really do,” Gordon said. “We are going to miss him a lot. I don’t know that we’ve ever really had someone like him come into this series, so it is hard to replace somebody like that. I know the fans are going to miss him and I will as well.”

Stewart, in many aspects, is a throwback to the drivers of yesteryear. To a time when drivers were a bit uncouth, not beholden to their sponsors and therefore willing to voice an opinion, even if it may be uncomfortable.

More than anything, Stewart represents a time when, between NASCAR weekends, even the biggest names would barnstorm across the country racing on some off-the-beaten-path short track.

Such is Stewart’s obsession that if you wanted to refer to it as an addiction,you wouldn’t be wrong. Even as NASCAR obligations commandeered his weekends 38 times a year, he would spend the midweek period turning laps in a sprint car at a dirt track in the middle of nowhere America. It wasn’t uncommon for Stewart to show up unannounced at a small track, even sometimes under an alias, just to test his mettle against the local hot-shoes.

That love of racing manifested itself into owning teams, tracks, and even a sprint car series. But Stewart’s passion, fiery temperament, and a willingness to speak out over perceived injustices have pot marked an otherwise illustrious career.

Many a driver has been known to throw equipment in frustration or anger, and Stewart is no different. Most memorable is him chucking his helmet at Matt Kenseth’s car at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2012, followed by Stewart whipping his hand in the air to rev up the crowd.

There were occasions, however, when Stewart’s temperament overstepped even the sliding scale of acceptable etiquette drivers are held to. In 2001, he kicked a reporter’s recorder on pit road after NASCAR’s annual July race at Daytona International Speedway. The anger brought about over a penalty Stewart incurred costing him a potential win.

The next season brought more controversy when Stewart shoved a photographer at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. For this, NASCAR fined him $25,000 and deducted 25 points.

Occasional boorish behavior wasn’t just isolated to North America. While in Australia racing sprint cars in January 2011, Stewart was involved in an altercation where, according to reports, he hit a co-owner of a track in the face with a helmet.

Stewart’s hotheadedness became a central focus after his involvement in the death of driver Kevin Ward Jr. during a race at an Upstate New York dirt track in August 2014.

Apparently upset over contact between the two that disabled his car, Ward walked towards the bottom of the track to confront Stewart, who was circling under caution, and was clipped by the right-rear wheel of Stewart’s car. The 20-year-old Ward would die from his injuries.

A grand jury cleared Stewart of criminal wrongdoing (a civil lawsuit filed by Ward’s family is ongoing), but his role had a lasting impact. In the weeks immediately after, Stewart became a recluse and admitted he suffered from depression. He has said several times since Ward’s death will forever be something he carries with him.

The character flaws that are often ever-present and the list of transgressions where he’s let his temper get the better of him is partly why Stewart resonates so well with the hardcore fan, who struggles relating to NASCAR’s newer generation of drivers. He may be flawed -- but he is genuine, and in many aspects no different than the heroes they grew up rooting for.

Although Stewart could play the role of bully well, dismissing a question he thought stupid from a media member with a snide remark, there was also another side -- one he preferred to keep behind the scenes. If someone in the racing community found themselves in need, Stewart’s benevolence knew no bounds.

When a tire fatally struck IndyCar driver Justin Wilson in the head during a race last summer, Stewart summoned his plane to bring Wilson’s family to his bedside in an Allentown, Pa., hospital. When Kyle Busch was laid up in a Daytona Beach hospital with a broken right leg and a broken left foot sustained the day before the 2015 Daytona 500, Stewart didn’t just pay a visit to Busch right after NASCAR’s marquee race, but held his plane and made the passengers on board wait so he could be there to lift Busch’s spirits and reassure him his injuries could be overcome.

Stewart had firsthand knowledge of Busch’s ordeal. He had badly broken his right leg in a sprint-car crash in 2013, which caused him to miss the final 15 races of the NASCAR season.

“Tony was actually the first one to the hospital,” Busch said. “As soon as the Daytona 500 was over, he was there. He actually told everybody that was on his plane that they were going to wait. He was there for about four hours. We had a good talk.

“We had a good discussion about just what it was like and the process that he had to go through and how long it was probably going to be or what it was going to be. In all reality, our injuries were the same but entirely different. His was much more severe than mine. Just being able to talk with him, my mindset was OK.”

These are just a mere sampling of the kind acts Stewart has undertook on his own accord. Walk in a NASCAR garage and it’s impossible not to encounter an array of people he has helped in some facet.

Stewart will cease driving in the Sprint Cup Series following Sunday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but it’s not as if his presence won’t continue in NASCAR.

As the co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, he fields four full-time teams for Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Danica Patrick, and Clint Bowyer, who will take over driving duties for Stewart beginning in 2017. His fingerprints are, and will continue to remain, all over the organization; a team that’s in far better shape than when he arrived eight years ago.

Tired of his then 2-car perennially running in the back, team owner Gene Haas offered Stewart a 50 percent ownership stake to revamp the organization in 2009. A seemingly losing proposition considering Stewart was with the powerhouse Joe Gibbs Racing, a team that represented everything Haas’ team wasn’t.

Under Stewart’s leadership, SHR has since blossomed into one of NASCAR’s upper-echelon organizations. Stewart spearheaded the recruitment of new personnel, additional sponsorship in the form of prominent brands such as Anheuser-Busch, Bass Pro Shops, Mobil 1, Office Depot, Old Spice, and the U.S. Army, and entered into a closely knit technical alliance with Hendrick Motorsports.

On the track, Stewart delivered as well. He scored SHR its maiden race victory in his first season with the team, and two years later a championship. That title, his third overall, was the epitome of Stewart as a driver. Almost willing himself on sheer talent and bravado, he won five of 10 playoff races, including a thrilling straight-up duel over Carl Edwards, who finished tied with Stewart in the point standings but lost the title via a tiebreaker because Stewart won the last race of the season while Edwards placed second.

Stewart’s acumen as an owner continued with the signing of Kevin Harvick in 2014. One of Stewart’s close friends, Harvick was looking for a fresh start after 13 successful and frustrating years with Richard Childress Racing. Tired of not being consistently provided the caliber of equipment to match his talent, Harvick found a home at SHR. He would win a championship in his first year driving for Stewart’s team and nearly a second in 2015.

Going forward, SHR’s deep roster makes the likelihood of another championship a distinct possibility. That would give Stewart three Cup titles apiece as an owner and driver.

As for Stewart himself, he by no means is done with driving. Quite the opposite.

Free of the sponsor and media commitments that he found difficult to endure and barely tolerated, the 45-year-old Stewart is relishing the chance to focus on racing outside of NASCAR. Primarily, that means competing in sprint-car events, a schedule he says will consist of 40 to 50 races. Other possibilities include the around-the-clock sports-car races at Daytona and Le Mans.

Whatever he chooses and whatever future success he may achieve, it doesn’t change the fact that Stewart is retiring as unquestionably one of the greatest drivers of all time.

The ability to win across a variety of disciplines -- in addition to three championships and 49 victories in NASCAR’s premier division, he’s also an IndyCar Series championship and became the first driver to win the USAC “Triple Crown” (championships in sprints, midgets, and Silver Crown) -- has Stewart alongside Gordon, Mario Andretti, Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, and A.J. Foyt, Stewart’s idol, as America motorsports royalty.

“[He’s] won races and championships in everything,” said Jimmie Johnson, a six-time Sprint Cup champion. “It takes such a talent to do that. I can’t imagine between open-wheel and NASCAR to be able to find that last tenth (of a second) to be a race winner, what detail goes into that.”