Man that vehicle got all messed up, Mikey had someone watching out for him..
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and.. Did’ju know?
FRom the Mail Bag at Yahoo Nascar sports..
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And now, carrying over from a question we had last week, here’s more responses as to why Tony Stewart is nicknamed “Smoke”:
Tony Stewart as “Smoke” may refer to smokin’ the competition. I prefer to think that it’s about Tony’s ready-to-rumble attitude, as in, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
Andy Clark
Arizona
Jerry, I have a clarification for you. “Smoke” is indeed Stewart’s nickname, but the reason he got the nickname wasn’t quite right. Tony got the nickname “Smoke” because of the way he used to smoke his tires back in his IRL days. A lot of people have inquired about that and assumed or said the wrong thing. Ask Zippy or Smoke about it. That’s where it came from. Although as a Smoke fan, I did like the assumption about smoking the competition. To rip off Paul Harvey, now you know the rest of the story.
Cary
Nashville, Tenn.
Jerry, You might want to double check your source on Tony Stewart’s nickname origins. This is from the Joe Gibbs Racing site: Smoke” a.k.a. Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Pontiac. “It started in Sprint cars clear back in ‘91 when I was running USAC. I wasn’t very good about not slipping the right rear tire, initially. So it started as ‘Smoker,’ then it got shortened to ‘Smoke.’ Then when I got in the IRL (Indy Racing League) it was ‘Smoke’ because one of the guys on the crew who was my roommate and knew the nickname, carried it over to the Indy car team. But then when I started blowing engines, ‘Smoke’ really stuck. I’ve had it ever since.” At least it’s not from one of those chat rooms. Crash
You made a statement regarding why Tony Stewart is called “Smoke” because of the way he beats opponents. He was really called Smoke or Smoked because he was famous for smoking the tires on restarts in earlier days (pre-NASCAR).
Joe O’Leary
Ewing, N.J.
I thought Tony got his nickname for what flew out of his ears, cartoon style, every time he got mad.
I guess I’m wrong about Tony. I thought it referred to his 5 O’Clock shadow... :(