Stewart is fired up; defends Zippy

From ESPN.com:

Tony Stewart sharply defended crew chief Greg Zipadelli’s decision to pit late in last weekend’s race at New Hampshire, saying “it’s easy to be an armchair quarterback.”

Stewart dominated the race but wound up 13th when officials stopped it 17 laps early because of rain. Zipadelli called for the late pit stop — most of the leaders followed suit — and Stewart found himself in the middle of the pack when the rain started a few minutes later. Many of Stewart’s fans were critical this week of Zipadelli’s call.

“You see all of this criticism from people and it’s people who can’t even control their own lives and they want to sit here and tell us how to run race teams on the weekend,” Stewart said. “I find that highly amusing that people think that they’ve got a better solution all the time than what we do. It’s easy after it’s all over to say, ‘Well you should’ve done this. What was he thinking?’

“If they were that smart, they would be crew chiefs, and obviously they’re not that smart listening to the criticism. It just frustrates you as a driver knowing that you’ve got a crew chief that’s won two championships and 30-plus races with you that people think they are a lot smarter than and they’re not.”

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Zippy thinks Tony knows his future already…

According to an ESPN/AP article, which I saw on Jayski, Greg Zipadelli, crew chief for the #20 Home Depot Toyota, thinks driver Tony Stewart knows what his future holds.

“I honestly think the decision’s made, I just don’t think we all know yet.”

Zipadelli and Stewart have the current longest driver/crew chief relationship in the garage area, having been together all of their ten years in the premiere NASCAR series.

Swear to god, if it doesn’t include Joe Gibbs Racing or at least the Home Depot, I may possibly give birth to a small farm animal. Baaaaaah!

Baaaaaah! Meow! Baaaaah!

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Heartbreaking, simply heartbreaking

From the NASCAR.com article, “Stewart’s late slip hands Kahne Coca-Cola 600 win”, finally something about what happened to Tony Stewart after his tire went flat.

Instead, he wound up a frustrating 18th and stormed into his hauler without comment. He could be seen inside the truck kicking at the cabinets as crew chief Greg Zipadelli was left to answer questions about yet another near-miss.

It’s so heartbreaking and I’m usually not one to be like this, but it is and you have to know what he feels… exactly what Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has felt all season. They have come so close and then something silly or just something out of a movie happens and bam, their chances are gone.

I listened to them every lap of the race. They knew their car sucked during the daytime but as soon as the sun went down, the car turned on.

I just hope this frustration doesn’t lead Tony to leave Gibbs. A blown tire isn’t their fault. It’s nobody’s fault. It happened a few times tonight to several guys.

Heartbreaking. Now, I’ll go to sleep hoping Mr. Kahne knows that if that tire hadn’t of blown, he would have been to the side, watching Tony and the #20 crew celebrate in victory lane.

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No. 20 team unhappy with Menard after pit road crash

CONCORD, N.C. — Don’t expect the crew for the No. 20 Chevrolet driven by Tony Stewart to be sending any holiday invitations for Thanksgiving or Christmas to the crew for the No. 15 Chevy driven by rookie Paul Menard.

They might, however, send over a cold turkey stuffed with sour grapes — or something more foul.

Greg Zipadelli, crew chief for Stewart, was upset with Menard and his crew after a pit-road incident during Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The resulting damage pretty much ended any chance Stewart had of winning the race, although he did rally after falling back to finish a respectable seventh. (more…)

Posted in NASCAR, Paul Menard, Tony Stewart | 5 Comments »