My Transition from Casual Fan to Die Hard NASCAR fan and my Transition with Tony Stewart

Hey my fellow race fans sorry that it's once again been so long since I made a post I found this a very appropriate post to make in light on Tony Stewart making the news official that next season will be his last. It's so weird to think that after next season Tony Stewart will not be racing in the cup series. Seeing all the stars that were in NASCAR when I started watching now retiring  is very weird to see. It's weird to think that Jeff Gordon's career is almost finished and Tony's is a year from being finished. Tony is a driver that I've had a interesting story about. When I first got started watching NASCAR seriously in 2007 my favorite drivers were Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch. It seemed that Tony and Kurt were always getting into fights and disagreements (which is funny since there now teammates). I was so mad at Tony for in my mind wrecking my favorite drivers. It didn't matter wither it was Tony's fault or not I said it was Tony's fault and how much I disliked Tony and he was my least favorite driver. I knew nothing about Tony's personality I was basing it clearly off the fact he tangled with my favorite drivers multiple times. This dislike of Tony continued on until about 2009 when he became a owner and left Joe Gibbs Racing. I started to see Tony more as another driver and not just a guy always wrecking my favorites (it helped that he wasn't wrecking them any more).  However even when he and Joey Logano got into it after the wreck that broke Denny's back I wasn't mad at Tony I had fully graphed how in NASCAR they get mad and they show their passion but that the drivers probably get over it in some cases quicker than their fans. I didn't have to be mad that he was mad at Joey I understood it was part of what happens and I moved on quicker than I would have when I started watching NASCAR. However what truly helped to change my mind set about Tony was learning during those years just what it meant to be in NASCAR and more about NASCAR. When I started watching NASCAR both with my dad and then in 2007 when I started seriously following the sport I didn't truly understand what I was watching (I was mostly watching originally because it was something I did with my dad) I like most people originally loved the wrecks and any race that didn't have wrecks was boring. The restrictor plate and short tracks were my favorite tracks because they had the most wrecks. I didn't understand that NASCAR can be exciting without the wrecks that you can have great racing and lead changes which makes the racing exciting. I didn't realize how dangerous the sport was. I was 8 in 2001 when Dale SR, Adam Petty and all the rest were killed that lead to the NASCAR safety advancements I was having my 8'th birthday party the day Dale SR was killed so despite watching races with my dad in the years after and around that time I was unaware of the true dangers. When I truly tuned in it had been enough years since Dale and the rest had passed on that their stories weren't the current topic. I only became truly aware of the impact they had and of them as racers when their 10 year anniversary of deaths came up in 2011. The sport was high up on safety when I first started watching racing and had made many great improvements that have since saved a lot of drivers lives. I never saw a driver injured early on when I started watching. These days I'm well aware that lead changes and great racing make for exciting races. I've seen a lot of drivers injured or have wrecks that should have injured them and realized watching some wrecks that years ago the drivers would have been killed (many heroes and many of my favorites included). These days I still love short track racing it's still some of my favorite due to the amount of lead changes and close finishes it usually has however restrictor plate racing I liked a lot more until this year. After Kyle's injury and Austin's horrific crash I'm nervous about Talladega coming up I love the fact that anyone can win and it give the underdogs a chance but it makes me a lot more nervous for driver safety then it used to. Before Kyle's wreck I didn't think of drivers being injured in that racing it wasn't until I saw it firsthand that I let myself think about it. However heading to Daytona this July I was a little nervous for injuries but I knew the cars were safe. Watching Austin crash though I truly thought I had just seen my first death in NASCAR. All along I'd known death was a possibility and most weekends it doesn't cross my mind however after Austin's wreck it does when going to restrictor plate tracks. Through those years in NASCAR I also started to understand the family community involved in NASCAR. When I started watching I had no knowledge of that, I translated my other knowledge of sports (which was limited). I saw it as my favorite drivers vs. everyone else I had my favorites and they were good everyone else bad and someone who consistently wrecked my drivers was very bad. However once I started to become aware of the NASCAR community and how these drivers respect each other and help each other off track if someone is going through something personally it changed how I saw the fights. As I realized what a great community NASCAR has between its drivers, crew members and fans I truly became a part of the community. My views of NASCAR started to align more with the typical die hard race fan and I started to be proud to be a part of this community. To realize what this community stands for and the way they support each other has been truly eye opening and it's something I love about NASCAR. It's unseen with any other sports you don't see all the NFL teams doing what NASCAR does. It's one of my favorite parts of NASCAR and learning about the community.  I started to realize that I didn't need to like every driver but I needed to respect what they did because I was a part of this community by being a fan. I understood it's okay to have guys you dislike but to make those based off reasons other than the fact that my favorite drivers were wrecked by them. In learning to respect other drivers I became aware of just how talented off a race car driver Tony Stewart was. I also began to hear stories of the good he had done for others (many times behind the scenes). From 2009 to mid 2013 Tony was just a driver that I didn't really hate anymore but I certainly wasn't a Tony fan. I think my best friends and family can attest to the transformation in my views of Tony and they stopped teasing me about Tony when they saw that I didn't react like I once did. My best friends mom and I talked last year about how Tony was a good guy after his tragedy and that's when I saw she truly had realized my change. I wish more than anything that I could discuss this changing time of NASCAR with her and see if she'd still tease me about Tony with his retirement coming and me actually being sad that he's leaving (which is totally different then the cheering that I would have had when I first started watching NASCAR and disliking Tony) but unforcently I lost that opportunity in January and I miss her everyday but especially when these big NASCAR moments happen because without her I don't have a NASCAR buddy to talk this all through with. I often think that's why I don't make posts until big things happen in NASCAR. I can handle the races without talking to her but I think I started posting what I would talk to her about and I never realized I was doing it until I started typing up this post.  These last two years have taught me so much about Tony Stewart that I never saw all those years I was busy disliking him. Seeing Tony go through all his own struggles was hard to watch on a basic level to know that anyone was going through that much hard stuff at once. However it allowed me to see how much the NASCAR community loved Tony and the way they stood behind him. It also brought out the good side of Tony stories that I had never heard and made me realize what a great person he is. Hearing how he was the first driver to visit Kyle Busch after his accident was just one of those stories. Most recently seeing how he lended his plane to Justin Willson's family to get them to his side and how it wasn't public knowledge until the Indy Car drivers publicly thanked Tony. Those are the type of stories that learning about them really opened my eyes about Tony.  I will miss watching Tony race he's not my favorite driver but he brings a lot of hilarious moments in his interviews. I'm glad to hear that he's not leaving the NASCAR community. I hope after the last 2 years that Tony can win a few races before he hangs his helmet up in the sprint cup series. Tony has made a big impact in this sport and despite disliking him at the beginning I can now say that I fully respect Tony Stewart's driving ability and that he has one of the kindest hearts I've seen in my time in NASCAR. Tony it's great you're not leaving fully but your presence will be one deeply missed on the racetrack after next year. Thank you to everyone who read this post I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you all enjoy the race this weekend and the rest of the chase.