Stewart, Foyt share much more than a car number (cont'd)

Similarities abound, on and off the track. Foyt won the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500, and the 24 Hours of LeMans; Stewart has won two NASCAR championships, three USAC titles and an Indy Racing League crown. They're a pair of incessant pot-stirrers, despite the decades-wide gap in their age. In 2004, Foyt offered Stewart a chance to practice and perhaps even qualify a car for the Indianapolis 500, and the NASCAR driver was all suited up when attorneys told him contractual obligations precluded him from taking to the track. Foyt once threw a fuel-mileage-calculating laptop off his pit box after his driver ran out of gas, and tussled with Arie Luyendyk in Victory Lane; Stewart has knocked a recorder out of a reporter's hand and tussled with Jeff Gordon and Robby Gordon in the garage.

And neither has forgotten where they came from. Despite their successes and occasional tempers, Foyt and Stewart remain relatively uncomplicated, grounded people who seem most at home in the country or tilling a patch of land. Stewart spends much of his time in his hometown of Columbus, Ind.; Foyt lives in Hockley, Texas.

"They're driven competitors. They give the impression of having a short fuse, and they do. They say with they think. But they both privately are very generous people, and they don't forget," said Donald Davidson, historian at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, site of Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. "The friends they had from a long time ago didn't get left behind, certainly with Stewart, and I think probably with Foyt. If you look at Foyt's crew, it's the same people every year. Maybe that's a problem, and maybe they'll have a new engineer or something. But at least it's very refreshing to go by and see many of the same people he had 20 or 30 years ago."

And they're both more generous than they let on; perhaps impacted by the help they received from others on their respective paths to the top.

"Foyt, and I don't think he ever cared to have this known, but he always helped whenever a driver was injured, which doesn't happen much any more," Davidson said. "When a driver was injured, he would always make sure that transportation was taken care of and that the family would have a place to stay and all that kind of stuff. Tony does that. Of course, that's not an issue anymore. But there have been times when people that he knew were trying to run at racetrack A on Friday and racetrack B on Saturday, and it was a great distance. He sent the plane to get them from one place to another, and he wasn't even part of the trip."

Stewart never officially asked Foyt for permission to use his old number; the NASCAR driver left his cellphone on vacation during the recent off weekend, and Foyt was with his IndyCar team preparing for Saturday's race in Edmonton, Canada. But Stewart sent word through an intermediary, and the legend was more than pleased. Stewart knew he would be. It's amazing how two stubborn, fiery racecar drivers, who have each had run-ins with so many other people, can themselves get along so well.

"We've got the same personality," Stewart said. "I think we have such a high level of respect for each other that when we've disagreed, it usually doesn't last for very long. I couldn't count on one hand the number of times we've had disagreements with one another. Usually we're the ones starting the disagreements with other people and getting them going. It's been a relationship that's like the commercials -- this cost this much, this cost that much, and the rest is priceless. That's what my relationship with him has been like."

Others see it, too. "I think Tony and A.J. have a lot in common," four-time Brickyard champ Jeff Gordon said. "They're racers that just get into everything and anything and go out there and are competitive and have success at it. We don't see enough of that these days. It seems like more and more drivers kind of specialize in one area. You know, Tony and a couple other guys are really making a mark by doing a lot of different types of racing. I think it's fantastic. And I think just his personality and attitude, all that, I think he can definitely suit that 14 well."

It all leads to a natural question: Is Stewart this way because he's spent so much time around Foyt, seeing him first as an idol and later as a car owner and friend? Davidson doesn't think so. "Tony Stewart and A.J. Foyt are cut from similar cloth," the historian said. Although Foyt might be more technically minded -- a product of his era, when drivers built and repaired cars as well as drove them -- the two are "more alike than they know," said Robby Gordon, who has driven for Foyt and against Stewart for years in open-wheel as well as stock cars.

So how appropriate would it be if the old man were to leave his ranch for a few days next February, and instead watch Stewart try to win the Daytona 500 with the car number he made famous. "It would be cool if we could get him there," Stewart said. "If there's a laptop to be thrown, I'll let him do it."

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.