Stewart's learning ropes as team owner at this week's Chili Bowl

Tony Stewart is committed to building Stewart-Haas Racing into an immediate contender. Getty Images

Tony Stewart has three entries in this week's Chili Bowl, an all-star extravaganza Midget event in Tulsa, but he'll be attending only as an owner. It's a choice Stewart made based upon priorities and is reflective of the full commitment he's made to build Stewart-Haas Racing into an immediate contender in Sprint Cup.

"I feel a lot better when I'm the fourth guy [driving at the Chili Bowl]," Stewart said. "The Cup deal is a priority for me and, personally, I had to take Barrett-Jackson [automobile auction] off, I had to take the Chili Bowl off. We're making sure the Cup team is ready to go. If I get a phone call and need to get back to [Kannapolis, N.C., where the Cup team is based], I need to be available. We're within a month window of Daytona. When you're responsible for 150 people, you never know what will happen."

Stewart has spent almost every day at the 140,000-square foot, state-of-the-art facility since the season ended in mid-November. He was away for a couple of days to race in an indoor Midget race in Fort Wayne, Ind., in the final week of December, winning one night and finishing second on the other, and a few more days to be Grand Marshall of the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona last week.

"I really am focused on our Cup team," Stewart said. "After the season ended, I was at our shop all the way up to Christmas Eve. I was home [in Columbus, Ind.] for 23 hours before my dad and I loaded up and went to Fort Wayne to run the Midget. I've enjoyed being back down at the race shop.

"I'm not responsible for the cars being built, but those guys know I'm there. I want to see how the progression is coming along at the shop and I enjoy it. I'm happy to be at the shop with the guys. I'll spend the majority of my time this calendar year in Charlotte (area). I have a lot to learn. I'm not a Rick Hendrick, a Joe Gibbs, a Jack Roush. I don't know if I'll ever get there, but I can't get there if I don't try to take time to learn."

Stewart was offered half ownership -- reportedly for free -- in the former Haas CNC Racing operation last season, and it was an offer he could not refuse. In addition to driving for Gibbs, Stewart spent the second half of the Cup season putting together the essentials --second driver Ryan Newman, sponsors, crew chiefs and Director of Competition Bobby Hutchens -- in order for the operation to hit the ground running in November.

Haas CNC had plenty of assets to offer Stewart. The race shop includes a new seven-post shaker rig, a race track simulator for cars that has become more vital with NASCAR's testing ban, and Haas CNC owner Gene Haas also owns the most advanced wind tunnel in North America, located in Charlotte, N.C.

The team needed front-line drivers, team members and more sponsorship to make the jump from also-ran to race and championship contenders. Stewart was worth the price the team paid. He knows how to win races and his leadership has been, and will continue to be, essential in building the organization.

Stewart has shown at the short-track level that he has what it takes as an owner. He built a state-of-the-art facility in Brownsburg, Ind., for his World of Outlaws Sprint Car and USAC Sprint, Midget and Silver Crown teams. He won the WoO title with Donny Schatz last year and with Danny Lasoski in 2001, and the USAC Triple Crown, all three national series, with J.J. Yeley in 2003.

Stewart has a formidable lineup in the Chili Bowl with regular USAC drivers Levi Jones and Tracy Hines and Josh Richards, the runner-up in the WoO Late Model championship last year. Jones is a two-time USAC national Sprint Car champion, including in 2007 driving for Stewart. Hines won the Chili Bowl in 2005, is a two-time USAC national champion and lost the 2008 Midget title by one point to Cole Whitt.

"We've got three guys who can get it done, to be sure," Stewart said.

The Chili Bowl is to Midgets what Daytona is to NASCAR, at the start of the season with plenty of time to get ready. Stewart's team has built new cars and will be racing new cars.

"You have a little bit of extra time to make it nice, make sure everything's perfect," Stewart said. "It's not like when you're in the middle of the season grind."

There are 293 entries in this year's event, which began on Tuesday and runs to Friday. Each driver races on a qualifying night and, depending upon finishes, lines up in one of the heats on Saturday. There were 23 heats last year and it's possible for a driver to advance all the way to the 50-lap finale.

Sprint Cup driver Kasey Kahne, unemployed Cup driver Yeley, Nationwide Series regular Jason Leffler, former NASCAR driver Shane Hmiel and P.J. Jones are among the veterans entered this year. NASCAR development drivers include Justin Allgaier (Penske), who will drive in the Nationwide Series this year, Josh Wise (Michael Waltrip Racing), Bryan Clauson (Earnhardt/Ganassi), Ricky Stenhouse (Roush Fenway) and Bobby East (Ford) are also entered.

Jerry Coons Jr., USAC's national champion in Sprint Cars and Silver Crown last season, and Whitt, the Midget titlist, are also competing.

"The thing about the Chili Bowl is it comes at the time of a year when nothing else is running," Stewart said. "Whether you drive in USAC or the Badger Series, East Coast, West Coast, non-wing or wing sprint cars, the biggest and best short track drivers come to the Chili Bowl for a week and it makes it special.

"It's very easy to miss the A main on Saturday. Things have to hit from the time you take the track. You can take guys who don't make the A main and take them to any short track in the country and announce them and the fans will go crazy. Winning it is bragging rights for a year."

Stewart has won the Chili Bowl twice, in 2002 and 2007. The victor takes home the Golden Driller Trophy and Stewart is proud to display it alongside his two Sprint Cup trophies.

"Everybody wants to win it," Stewart said. "It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from. When I won it, it was huge. It was really cool in 2007. It was our coming out event with Chevrolet, we had all the Chevy people there and to win the Chili Bowl with our own equipment was a dream weekend for me."

Stewart's background is in short track open-wheel. He was the first to win USAC's triple crown in the same season, in 1995, and it rocketed his career forward, initially to the Indy Racing League, then on to Cup. Stewart would love to be in a car in the Chili Bowl this week. That he won't be says everything about how seriously he's taking his obligation as a Cup team owner.

Tim Tuttle can be reached at siwriters@simail.com