Tony Stewart could not have been more clear.
“This track is not for sale. It’s not sold. It’s ours. And we plan on keeping it for a long time.”
That runs contrary to rumors that began circulating in racing circles on Wednesday leading up to the prestigious Late Model Dream event that begins this week.
“I don’t know who was really bored and thought they would play a nice practical joke at home, but this track is not sold and it is not for sale,” Stewart told FloRacing on Thursday. “This is a tradition with Earl and Bernice (Baltes) that they started back in 1954 that we’re proud to be owners of this race track. It’s something that we’re passionate about. Trust me, when my phone started blowing up yesterday, it did not make me happy.”
Stewart has owned the speedway since 2004, turning into one of the premier facilities under his watch, and the narrative is part of the fallout of Stewart and Gene Haas selling their NASCAR team by the end of the season.
“This is one of those situations where I was sitting at home yesterday getting ready to come here today and then onto Bristol this weekend, but literally for three hours yesterday I was sending text messages to people saying this is not true,” Stewart explained. “It affects everybody involved. It affects the fans, our sponsors. It’s unnecessary and unneeded. It created a lot of problems yesterday that we didn’t need.”