“It’s sad in our sport now”: When Tony Stewart slammed NASCAR drivers for being ‘vanilla and wimpy’

Back in 2023, former race car driver Tony Stewart spoke about modern generation NASCAR drivers, and how they were 'vanilla and wimpy' after on-track skirmishes. Stewart sat with retired NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace and called out the current drivers' way of handling things if things do not go their way.

Stewart appeared in an interview with Wallace in The Kenny Conversation, and the former was the first guest of Wallace's podcast. As they spoke about NASCAR, this was when he touched upon the current generation of drivers for being too soft.

"It's sad in our sport now how vanilla and wimpy all these drivers are," Tony Stewart said. "They literally won't confront each other at the track. They'll just sit there and wait till they get home and beat on each other on Twitter where nobody has to face anybody." (00:52 onwards)

"I remember drivers coming up in the lounge and it wasn't always bad. Sometimes they'd come in there and tell you when you did something good too. And that you did something right, they'd come in and appreciate you for it. But if you did something wrong, exactly there were meetings in between trailers," he added. [2:02 onwards]

An infamous incident of drivers taking to Twitter to share their frustration took place when Denny Hamlin took to his official account to post a racial meme about Kyle Larson. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was visibly upset with the Hendrick Motorsports man, but instead of going face-to-face, the former took the help of social media in 2022.

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What was Tony Stewart like in his days as a NASCAR driver?

Tony Stewart himself was far from 'vanilla and wimpy' and there were multiple instances of it. One of the most notable incidents was his fight in 2013 against Joey Logano. However, he barely escaped the NASCAR penalty.

The duo tangled during the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway, and a scuffle broke out between them shortly after. Team crews and personnel rushed to the place of the incident to separate the two drivers. Even though the two drivers violated NASCAR's norms, the governing body did not penalize them.

NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Tony Stewart - Source: Getty

Revealing why Stewart in particular was able to evade punishment, former Sprint Cup Series director John Darby said:

"I don't know that we've actually got a rule book that describes every push in the chest or kick in the shin. If two guys get into a helluva fight, we're going to have to react. But a couple of guys blowing off some steam and slapping at the air is not going to get anybody in a whole lot of trouble." [via jacksonville.com]

Tony Stewart is a three-time Cup Series champion. He retired from the sport at the end of the 2016 Cup Series season. In his 18 years of racing in NASCAR, he participated in 618 Cup Series races, claiming 49 wins, 15 pole positions, and 308 Top 10s.

After his driver phase was over, he remained connected to the sport as a co-owner of a fairly successful NASCAR Cup Series team, Stewart-Haas Racing. However, he decided to withdraw from the sport at the end of the 2024 season.