Even if you’re not a NASCAR fan, this post might be of interest. A brief explanation for those who aren’t familiar with NASCAR. Like any sport, fans have “their” drivers or drivers and ours is Tony Stewart. Although NASCAR has teams, unlike other sports, each driver must compete as hard as possible to win as an individual. Most NASCAR teams have 3-4 cars and there is an Owner’s Trophy as well as the individual cup, so an owner of one team might actually win the national owner award even though the individual driver who is the National Champion at the final race (held here in Homestead) might be from a different team. Okay, in the case of Tony Stewart, he is a driver-owner. At the end of the 2008 season, he left the Joe Gibbs Racing Team and merged to create Stewart-Haas Racing; originally with three cars, then they added a fourth. Tony won Rookie of the Year in 1999 and has accomplished a great many things in the world of racing. He’s won the National Championship three times, but then a series of setbacks occurred.

There was a terrible crash (not during a NASCAR race) that resulted in a broken leg and kept him out of an entire season. Then there was the tragic incident (also not during a NASCAR race) where Tony hit and killed a driver although despite a flurry of accusations, he was not at fault. It did, however, deeply affect him. At the end of last season, he announced he would be retiring as a driver after the 2016 Championship race. At age 45, that would give him 17 years in NASCAR. There was another injury, however, that kept him from the early part  of this season and fans as well as racing experts were concerned they might not see Tony (known as “Smoke”) attain any of his former glory. Last week, he ran very well the entire race for the first time in a long time, and yesterday was the day we had been waiting for. It was the Tony who had rightfully earned his reputation as one of the best drivers. He took the lead fairly late in the race, was holding off the other cars, yet on the last lap, it appeared he would come in second instead. In the kind of excitement that thrills fans, he maneuvered around though and saved the win. Most of the other drivers made a point to congratulate him as soon as possible. We’ll see what the rest of the season brings, but for the moment, he and we can enjoy the victory.