Tony Stewart eyes Indy 500 ride (2nd Update)

Tony Stewart is not going to be able to beat IndyCar drivers. When he ran IndyCar the field was a bunch of wankers. When the CART drivers came to Indy they buried Stewart. He best stay retired

UPDATE Tony Stewart’s dream of returning to the Indianapolis 500 remains very much alive, but he might be hitting the brakes on next season despite already having an offer.

In an interview with Rutledge Wood (below) during Sunday’s rain delay at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Stewart said he has been emailed by IndyCar team owner Bobby Rahal about running one of his cars in the Greatest Spectacle of Racing next season.

“And I don’t do emails, so I haven’t even responded to Bobby Rahal yet, so I just found out I had an email from him," Stewart said, pausing to turn to the camera with a smile. “Sorry Bobby, I don’t do email."

08/13/18 If Stewart wants to try the Indy 500 again he has an offer to drive for the top team.

Roger Penske’s desire to field a car for Tony Stewart in the Indianapolis 500 is still there from 2013 when Stewart said no.

“One of the biggest dreams of my life would be to get Tony Stewart in one of our Indy 500 cars," Penske said Sunday at Michigan International Speedway. “Obviously, we’ve got obligations now. We’ve got four cars running (next year) and to run a fifth would be pretty tough, but who knows over the next couple of years what happens. Just the fact that he would say he’d like to get in one was a real honor for me."

“He’s an icon in Indiana, an icon at Indianapolis, an icon in the sport," he said. “To have Stewart out there, it would be something. A tremendous impact to IndyCar.

“I’d love to have him in a car but he knows it better than I do that timing is everything. To me, if there was a time that we could fit it in and work for him and work for us, he’d be the first guy I’d call."

08/09/18 Tony Stewart’s love of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is well documented. Now, the NASCAR and IndyCar champion wants another chance at the Indianapolis 500 in 2019.

The 1997 Indy Racing League and three-time NASCAR Cup champion has two wins in the Brickyard 400, but a best finish of P5 in the famed Indy 500. Although the since-retired Stewart has had no serious talks with any IndyCar teams as of yet, he has made his intentions known at Thursday's unveiling of the 2019 Ford Mustang for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

Despite his interest in just making the one start, he is not interested simply in participating.

“If I go, I’m not going just to run it," Stewart told NBC Sports, who will be broadcasting the race in 2019. “I don’t want to be a sideshow like Danica [Patrick] was at Indy this year. If I go, I want to go feeling like I’ve got the same opportunity to win that everyone else in the field does."

“I care about running well in the car. I don’t know want to be the circus sideshow. If I do it, that’s not why I’m doing it. If I do it, I’m doing it because I want to win the race."

Under IndyCar’s new license rules, Stewart qualifies to jump into a Verizon IndyCar Series entry due to his previous experience in NASCAR and IRL. As the system was designed to keep the top level of IndyCar as the pinnacle of the sport, Stewart understands the importance of competing fairly with the full-time field.

“It’s an insult to the guys who do it every week to show up and think you’re going to be as good as those guys are," he said. “They’re on their game. They know their cars. They know how they need their cars to feel in practice to be good in the race. It’s foolish to think you can just show up and be competitive and have a shot to win."

Stewart has run the Indianapolis 500 five times, most recently claiming a P6 finish with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2001. Having long dreamed of winning at Indianapolis, he achieved this goal in the 2005 Brickyard 400. He followed with another win in 2007.