Tony Stewart has won in pretty much everything with wheels, from go-karts, midgets, to Cup cars and dragsters. But lately, people aren’t just talking about how he drove; they’re talking about how he built drivers. And one story from former NASCAR driver Josh Wise is reminding everyone just how real that side of Smoke was.

Josh Wise accidentally wrecked his future boss

Josh Wise was only eighteen when Tony Stewart decided to bring him into the fold. Stewart moved the kid back to Indiana, got him an apartment, and made him part of every decision on the team. Wise still sounds grateful years later.

“He was awesome. He’s such an incredible human. I was only 18 years old, which is almost old by young-driver standards today, but he incorporated me into everything,” he told Katherine Legge on Throttle Therapy.

It didn’t take long for Wise to get the call that changed everything. “I’ll never forget, he called me, and he hired me to drive for his team.” That phone call led to back-to-back USAC national championships in 2005 and 2006, but before any of that happened, Wise almost blew the whole deal in one wild night at Irwindale Speedway.

There was a pavement sprint car race, and Stewart had brought out one of his own TSR cars. Wise was running third in a local guy’s ride, Stewart was second, and some other driver was checking out up front.

Wise needed the spot to stay in the hunt, but Stewart wasn’t exactly waving him by. “He just kind of sent it in the corner with me and wouldn’t quite let me clear him,” Wise remembered. “I’m losing patience here.”

After a few tries, the teenager decided enough was enough. “I was like, ‘That’s it. I’m taking the position next time.’” So he dove in hard, clipped Stewart right-rear to left-front, and sent his future boss spinning into the wall.

Wise finished the race in total fog. “Honestly, the rest of the race I couldn’t think straight because I was thinking about how I just threw away my opportunity to drive for Tony Stewart.”

He rolled into the pits convinced his career was over before it started. “When I came in, I’m like, ‘Tony Stewart is gonna beat me up. I’m going to lose my ride.’” Instead, Stewart walked straight over, stuck his head in the cockpit, and grinned.

“That’s why I’m hiring you to drive for me next year.” Turns out Smoke didn’t want a kid who would back down; he wanted one who would race him as he owed him money. And that’s exactly how Josh Wise became part of the family.

Fast-forward to today, and another old Tony Stewart clip is blowing up for a totally different reason.

Stewart’s 2018 warning hits different now

A 2018 interview started making the rounds again after those lawsuit texts dropped. In the messages, NASCAR execs called Richard Childress names that can’t be printed here and labeled Stewart’s own SRX series “trash” they wanted to kill off. Fans were furious, and suddenly everyone remembered Stewart’s mention of a driver’s meeting years ago.

Almost twenty veterans sat down with NASCAR brass and laid out five solid ideas they believed would fix the sport. According to Stewart, one executive who had never turned a wrench or driven a lap shot every single one down, claiming the data said the drivers were wrong. Stewart looked right at the camera and said if things kept going that way, the sport wouldn’t even look like the one he grew up in.

Now, with texts showing the same office trash-talking legends and trying to bury competition, that old warning feels almost spooky. Stewart walked away from Cup ownership years ago, saying the charter system and money focus had sucked the fun out.

These days, he’s happier running sprint cars, dragsters, and his own series far from the politics. Watching the current mess unfold, a whole lot of people are thinking he saw it coming all along.

From wrecking his hero and getting hired anyway to calling out the suits before anyone else would, Tony Stewart’s stories just keep proving one thing: the man has always raced hard, talked straight, and built the kind of loyalty that lasts a lifetime.