Misfortune drafts IRL star

By Ron Kantowski

Wednesday, March 19, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Of all the things unusual about the new Indy Racing League, one that stands out is that its marquee driver has never won a race.

Given that he has led five of the IRL's six races (often in dominating fashion) and that he drives for the series' best-funded team, it seems hard to fathom that young Tony Stewart has yet to visit victory lane.

Yet that's the situation confronting the hard-charging Indianapolis resident heading into Sunday's Phoenix 200 at Phoenix International Raceway.

"We've just got a monkey on our back right now but he can't hang on forever," Stewart said during a Tuesday publicity stop in Las Vegas. "So we're hoping this weekend will be the weekend we can finally shake it away."

Having posted the second-fastest time in open testing and logged more PIR test miles than any other driver, Stewart would be a logical choice to win this weekend's race. The Phoenix 200 is round four of the 10-race 1996-97 IRL season that began at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last September and will conclude here Oct. 11, under the lights.

The favorite's role is nothing new to the 25-year-old Stewart, the 1996 Indy 500 pole-sitter who has emerged from the USAC short-track ranks to become the IRL's top driving attraction under car owner John Menard.

At Loudon, N.H., last year, Stewart lapped the entire field twice before his temperamental Menard V-6 developed an electrical problem just 12 laps from the finish.

Then in this year's opener at Walt Disney World in radically redesigned IRL cars, Stewart again passed the entire field twice. But with dark clouds hovering over the track, a vibration jarred loose an oil fitting and Stewart spun in his own fluids, brushing the wall just hard enough to put him out.

Moments later, the skies opened and veteran Eddie Cheever was declared the race winner. Stewart just shook his head in disbelief.

"They're all frustrating," he said of the near misses. "When you feel like you've got a competitive car and you're a lap or two ahead, like we were in Loudon and Orlando ... they're all disappointing any time you drop out after leading."

And sometimes, injury is added to insult.

The only IRL event Stewart failed to lead was Las Vegas, where he was challenging the front-runners when a tire on his Menard's-Glidden Special punctured, sending Stewart hard into the turn 2 wall. He suffered the worst injuries -- broken pelvis, hip and collarbone -- of his racing career and was sidelined for a full three months.

But the versatile Stewart, who will resume his budding NASCAR career in Harry Rainier's Busch Series car following May's Indy 500, said the misfortunes of the past haven't affected his approach or attitude.

"You look at the Orlando race. We set quick time every practice, sat on the pole and set the fastest race laps," said Stewart, who will drive one of the new G Force chassis powered by a normally spirited Oldsmobile engine in Sunday's event at the one-mile Phoenix oval.

"Everything we did for the weekend was perfect. So you don't want to change what you're doing as a driver."

The only thing Stewart might want to change is his luck.