“When I Lose They All Take Satisfaction” – Tony Stewart Once Revealed How Even His Close Ones Rejoiced in His Defeat Due to His Nature

If there was a word to define Tony Stewart and his career in NASCAR, it would be ‘Competitive‘.

‘The Smoke’, as he was called, was a serial winner during his 18-year NASCAR career, but what most do not know – is that’s how he has always been.

Stewart won 3 NASCAR Cup Series during his time racing; 2 of these came for Joe Gibbs Racing while 1 came when he raced for his own team, Stewart-Haas Racing. He has also been inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame and the NASCAR Sprint Car Hall of Fame.

His achievements are indicative of the mindset and mentality he had. The truckloads of wins that he brought with him were not a product of just sitting around. He showed intent and intensity, pushing himself to beat everyone he competed with.

In an old video, Tony speaks about the mental aspect and how his mindset played a big part in his career. He was asked, “She said you were so competitive with everything, especially board games and she said that you wouldn’t let her go to bed until you were able to beat her in a board game.”

Stewart said, “That’s pretty accurate. The sad part is it’s still accurate to this day. We still at family functions play the same board games. Everybody in our family equally hates to lose, but they know I hate to lose worse than anybody else so when i lose they all take satisfaction in watching the agony of defeat. [Any other sports?] Nah, there was always racing. It was everything. That’s all, ever since I was a little kid, that’s all I thought about.”

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Competitiveness is an integral character virtue for any person, but most of all for an elite athlete. As his story shows, it was his competitiveness that brought him the laurels he accumulated.

Tony Stewart was the star among his friends

Tony started racing Go-karts at the tender age of 8. He won his first championship at the age of 9, and he was being sought after by sponsors for his kart. It made him a star at a very young age.

He was asked about the first sponsor for his go-kart. Stewart replied, “At the age of 9, I had Dairy Queen as a sponsor. [So you got to go to DQ after every race?] Yeah, every Saturday night after we raced at the Fairgrounds, we loaded up and took about 20 people to Dairy Queen.”

“Whatever trophy we won that night, whether we won or finished third or whatever, it went on the counter and stayed there till the end of the year. But I thought I was the coolest kid in the world because I got a $1 free chocolate shake every Saturday night. I would sit there and my buddies would have to pay for theirs, I got mine in my hand and I didn’t have to pay for it,” he said with a smile on his face.

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Just some perks of being a brilliant racing talent at the age of 9. All those nights spent karting, translated into being a legend of NASCAR for Tony.