Racers get their midget cars ready for the All-Star Circuit of Champions TQ Midget race during the Bartholomew County Fair at the Bartholomew County Fairgrounds in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, June 28, 2023.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Back in his hometown, on the track in which he grew up racing, three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and Hall-of-Famer Tony Stewart shared the spotlight with his 85-year-old father Tuesday night.
Moments after Tony won the All-Star Circuit of Champions TQ Midget race at the Bartholomew County 4-H Fair, Nelson Stewart drove to victory in the Outlaw Legends event. Earlier in the evening, Nelson was the fast qualifier for the TQ Midget race.
“When your father is 85 years old, and he out-qualifies you, that pisses you off right off the bat,” Tony joked. “When we leave here tonight, this isn’t over with him. He will ride this wave for a long time or at least until his memory forgets what he did.”
Nelson ran in sixth place for most of the TQ Midget race. He was in seventh place after 27 of the 30 laps when he was sidelined because of a dead battery and finished 13th.
But a few minutes later, Nelson returned to win the four-car Outlaw Legends feature.
“It’s a perfect night,” Nelson said. “I’m just happy to be here.”
Tony qualified fourth among the 18 cars for the TQ Midget event. He won his heat race.
“We had to sit there and think about after the heat race what we wanted to change,” Tony said. “We really didn’t feel like we were very good balance-wise, and I’m not sure we necessarily hit it there, but we got better than we were.”
In the feature, Tony passed pole-sitter Conner Bolding of Visalia, California, to move into second place after one lap, then passed Evan Shatto for the lead on Lap 2. It was a lead he did not relinquish.
Ronnie Combs built a brand-new car with a diamond chassis ready for Tony to drive last week at Rushville, and he drove it to victory on Tuesday.
“We still have some bumps to work out a little bit,” Tony said. “The motor ran really good. We just have to find a couple little things here. We don’t have to find big yard-sale changes. We just have to find a couple small changes to make it better.”
Connor Wolf finished second in the feature. Shatto took third, while Bolding was fourth and Carter Whaley fifth.
Whaley, a 14-year-old from Danville, captured the Trophy Dash.
“These young kids are catching up, unfortunately, so it makes me work a little harder. I didn’t used to have to work this hard to win these. But it’s what makes it fun. The kid that beat us in the Trophy Dash, he just drove away, and I tried two or three different things and couldn’t even match pace with him. He just was pulling away. So we knew we had to go to work. We made some changes for the heat race and made it better.
“It’s fun to race with new people, and there’s a lot of cool young kids that are coming into this series,” he added. “This was the series that I cut my teeth in, and it’s an important series for kids coming out of go-karts and quarter-midgets. This is a stepping stone.”
The wins by Tony and Nelson weren’t the only recent victories for the Stewart family. Tony’s wife Leah won an NHRA race at Norwalk with a Top Fuel Car over the weekend.
“I joked when we started dating — my niece Emma is here, and she shows horses. My nephew raced go-karts for awhile. He rides mountain bikes and races mountain bikes,” Tony said. “I told Leah, I said, ‘This family wins,’ so she’s taken that to heart, and she’s done a good job. We just have fun. We love doing what we do. We love getting a chance to come home and race. We love racing with NHRA. We love our NASCAR teams, our sprint car teams. I just need a couple more hobbies. I don’t seem to have enough stuff.”
Tuesday’s program started about an hour late after Tony was testing an NHRA Funny Car at Lucas Oil Raceway just outside Indianapolis. But there was never a doubt that he would make it to what he considers to be an annual favorite of his.
“This is home,” Tony said. “This is Columbus. This fairgrounds, this racetrack, it used to be a little shorter, but this is where I started racing go-karts when I was 8 years old. So if you don’t think on fair night with the TQs that I’m going to be here, you have lost your damn mind because this is one of the most important places for me to be here in the fair, the night that TQs run here.
“I remember when I was a little kid watching Ronnie Ambrose and all these guys and Ronnie Combs, my good friend and the guy that puts his heart and soul into all these cars that TSR runs,” he added. “When I was in go-karts, I’m like, ‘I want to be able to drive a TQ one day.’ I had no idea I was ever going to go to NASCAR and Indy Car and NHRA and all the things that we’re doing, but I’m just always proud to come home and race here. I get to see people that I only see once a year. I don’t get home as much as I would like. I wish I got home more often, but nights like tonight, it’s a Three-Quarter Midget race, it’s a very big deal and a very big night every year when it comes around and a date that I circle on the calendar that’s very important.”
