Stewart Trades Helmet for Pen at Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals

KNOXVILLE, IA (Sept 24) – Citing his current position in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series championship point standings, Tony Stewart has decided not to compete in this weekend’s Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals at Knoxville Raceway. However, the two-time Nextel Cup champion will attend Saturday night’s finale as a spectator and participate in an autograph session at the race track.

“As much as I wanted to race in the Late Model Nationals at Knoxville, I thought it would take away my main focus of winning a Nextel Cup championship,” said Stewart, who is currently second in the Nextel Cup point standings, just two points behind series leader Jeff Gordon. “We have over 400 people back at Joe Gibbs Racing pouring everything they have into giving me the best race cars possible to win a third championship. I owe it to them to remain healthy and focused on achieving that goal.”

The top-seven drivers in this year’s Chase for the Nextel Cup are separated by less than 50 points. This weekend’s race at Kansas Speedway marks the eighth to last race of the season, and in order to gain even more knowledge to apply to his Nextel Cup effort on Sunday, Stewart is participating in the NASCAR Busch Series race at Kansas on Saturday.

“I sincerely apologize to anyone who was looking forward to seeing me race at Knoxville, and I hope that my fans can understand my reasons for not competing,” Stewart said. “While I won’t be racing, I look forward to attending the Late Model Nationals on Saturday night to sign autographs and watch what is sure to be another outstanding event at Knoxville.”

After completing Saturday’s Busch Series race at Kansas, Stewart will fly to Knoxville. Upon his arrival, he will sign autographs in a special session for 750 fans at the Bingley Building at Knoxville Raceway. The first 750 persons going into the grandstand on Thursday night with a ticket will receive a special wristband that will allow them into the Saturday autograph session.

“While we are disappointed that fans will not get the chance to see Tony drive as hard as he did in 2006, where he came up one spot short of winning his first Knoxville Raceway championship as a driver, we are excited to see Tony at the top in NASCAR again,” said Ralph Capitani, director of racing at Knoxville Raceway. “We understand his reasons for not racing and appreciate his longstanding support of grassroots racing.”

Nextel Cup drivers Ryan Newman and Kenny Schrader will represent the stock car set on Thursday and Saturday night. Newman last raced at Knoxville Raceway in a USAC Silver Crown car in 2000 while Schrader raced a Late Model at Knoxville in 2006.

Reserved tickets for all three nights of racing are available online at www.knoxvilleraceway.com  or by phone at (941) 842-5431. General admission tickets are available each day at the track.