Stewart peers: No-sweat doubleheader

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Posted: Saturday May 29, 1999 09:43 PM

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CNN/SI) -- What they're saying about Winston Cup rookie Tony Stewart's two-in-one shot at Sunday's Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600:

"It's not as bad as people think. He'll get up in the morning, he'll go run that race and it will be over in about three hours probably. He'll get in the plane and fly here and be all relaxed thinking about it. Then his adrenaline will be flowing thinking about the big reception he'll get when he gets here. He'll be smiling and jumping and he'll run to his car. He'll be fine, he really will. I don't think he'll be exhausted."
-- Rusty Wallace, whose helicopter will ferry Stewart from the Charlotte airport to Lowe's Motor Speedway.

"Seriously, you're in racing mode and you show up and you're already in racing mode. That's what we grew up doing, one race to another to another to another. We grew up on the short tracks, too. You practice, qualify, race and do the feature and then go home. Tomorrow's going to be a piece of cake for him as long as the weather cooperates and it looks like it's going to."
-- John Andretti, who competed in both races in 1994.

"He gets help from Bobby [Labonte] and his crowd and [Labonte's crew chief] Jimmy [Makar] that he ought to be able to get some help and a leg up on where he needs to be. They have all year long. I think that's one of their strong points compared to other rookies running. They're able to go to Bobby and talk where the other teams don't have that advantage right now. I think from that perspective, if he puts his stuff together and ends up like he did the other night, then he's got to come out pretty decent."
-- Kyle Petty

"I think he's handled most of it really well ... We're going to go back basically to the way we were in The Winston. I'm sure I'll be sneaking up in the lounge watching a few minutes of the Indy 500 here and there. I always tried to watch that race growing up. Racing is racing. I caught myself watching a Sprint car race [Friday] night. If it's on TV it doesn't matter what it is, I'm going to watch it."
-- Greg Zipadelli, Stewart's crew chief.

"He's got a real fast race car and he's a real smart racer. He'll be there. He'll have a good, solid run. He may not be a race winner, but he'll have a good, solid run."
-- Bill Davis, Ward Burton's team owner.

"This is a place where it's easy to pass. After they get 15 or 20 laps on their tires, as good a race car driver as that Stewart is, and that team, I think he'll come up through there."
-- Robbie Loomis, Andretti's crew chief.