Author Description

When Tony Stewart arrived on the NASCAR Winston Cup scene in 1999, he was already an auto racing champion. Stewart won the 1996-97 IRL championship before signing with Joe Gibbs Racing to run in the NASCAR Busch Series in 1998. When he moved up to the Winston Cup Series in 1999, everyone had high expectations for this rookie. Stewart qualified second at the Daytona 500, and when the year was over, a look at the point standings found him in fourth place. In between, Stewart had won three races, breaking Davey Allison's rookie record, and made a name for himself by running in the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. As Winston Cup racing enters the 2000 season, Stewart is showing everyone he intends to add his name to the list of great stock-car drivers.