“There are days you hate it”: When Tony Stewart spoke his heart on taxing side of NASCAR’s media duties

In a 2013 interview with USA Today, NASCAR legend, Tony Stewart spoke on the grueling side of media days on him. He called it a mixed bag, saying that some days he "loves" the duty and other days he "hates" it.

In 2013, Stewart, a three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, faced a challenging season with the addition of Danica Patrick to Stewart-Haas Racing and the team dynamics changing. One of the highlights of his season was a victory at the Dover International Speedway on June 2. This was his 48th career Cup Series win but an injury to his right leg on August 5th caused him to miss the rest of the season.

In the interview conducted before his series opener at Daytona 500, Tony Stewart sat down candidly with Nate Ryan of USA TODAY Sports and talked about his day as a stock car race driver. One of the major tasks for any driver for a team in the NASCAR Cup Series is the interaction they have with the media. During the 10 days leading up to the race at Daytona, Tony Stewart had his schedule done up to the tee.

"There are some days you go, 'Why am I doing this?'" he told USA TODAY Sports. "And there's some days that yeah, there's no doubt why I'm doing this. It's no different than anything else in anybody else's life. Doesn't matter how simple or complex. There are days you hate it and days you love it," said the current NHRA driver, Tony Stewart.

He spoke on how he can “throw a fit” over the amount of media duties he has to fulfil, given to him by the Director of Communications, Mike Arning.

"It doesn't matter whether I look at it or not, he's going to make me do what I don't want anyway, That's the reality of it. There are some things I can absolutely throw a fit about, and I'm still going to have to do it. He's getting the stuff done that needs to get done. And we've worked with each other long enough, he doesn't come to me with stuff that doesn't make sense. The hard part is now I've got three cars," he added.

Stewart, affectionately known as "Smoke," is a highly accomplished and versatile driver in motorsports. Born in Columbus, Indiana, his career evolved from go-karts to achieving great success in NASCAR. He secured three NASCAR Cup Series championships in 2002, 2005 and 2011.

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Tony Stewart spoke on why his 'Life's Good'

Tony Stewart, in the same interview, spoke on what he primarily is, a race car driver. But by this time, he had already been four years into his stint as the co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing and his role had expanded because of it. Though he had different responsibilities, he went on to say that he could drive as many sprint races as he wants because of the support from his team.

"I've got more stuff asked of me every week," he said. "But I drive a race car for a living. My car owner lets me race as many sprint car races as I want to run. Mike's kind of like having a wife. Life's good."

SHR ended its operations in 2024. This led to the birth of Haas Factory in the Cup Series and Tony Stewart Racing in NHRA, primarily.