Tony Stewart has been one of the most outspoken drivers during his time as a racer in the NASCAR Cup Series. His bursts of anger, especially when he went on tirades against Goodyear’s products, are well documented. So when one hears that Smoke had difficulty speaking up as a driver, it is hard to believe. But that’s exactly what the 3-time Cup Series champion revealed in a recent video uploaded on YouTube by Stewart-Haas Racing.

Tony Stewart was joined by his team’s veteran Cup Series racer, Chase Briscoe. After Kevin Harvick retired from the sport, Briscoe became the oldest driver in the team’s Cup setup, and from this season on, he will be the leader among the drivers. It is a role that Smoke had when he was a racer during his time at both Stewart-Haas Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing.

Tony Stewart reveals his people-pleaser side during his early days as a driver

For Stewart-Haas Racing, the 2024 Cup Series season will be one of redemption. 2023 was a disastrous year for the team in NASCAR’s biggest competition as they failed to win a single race despite having a driver of Kevin Harvick’s career. And now, Tony Stewart revealed that being the leader of a team meant taking tough decisions and that’s something he had difficulty with back in the day. Turns out Smoke used to be quite the people pleaser and that sometimes caused issues and made life difficult for the 3-time Cup Series champion.

He said, “There were a lot of times I didn’t speak my mind. You’re so scared when you’re leading, you want to make sure everybody’s happy and you want to make sure the morale is good but at the same time, when they tell you something you know is not right or you want it done a different way, you have to be able to speak up and I think that’s one of the things I struggled with early.“

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“I wanted the entire shop to be happy, and I wanted everybody to feel good about what we were doing but there are those moments where as a leader, you have to make those tough calls and you have to make tough decisions at times that sometimes they don’t always agree with or may not see your side of it and where you’re wanting to go with it but you have to make those tough calls and have those tough conversations sometimes,” added Tony Stewart further.

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Smoke will be hoping to see some competent leadership from the senior drivers in his Cup Series team, much like he did for several years. The former NASCAR champion is still the leader of SHR, and despite his previous issues with speaking his mind, Stewart has turned out to be quite the team owner.

The new Stewart-Haas Racing star hails Smoke’s leadership skills

One of the drivers he recently signed, Josh Berry, spoke highly of the 52-year-old and stated that he was going to work as hard as he could to get the results the team desperately needs at this point. Berry is a veteran of the sport, and fans have been wanting to see him full-time in the Cup for a long time.

“Tony has been a great leader and had a lot of success in this sport. I can completely understand why he would say that he wants us to perform better. That’s naturally as an owner what he’s expected to do and that’s what we expect of ourselves. I don’t think any of us, I didn’t walk into this deal expecting everybody to pat me on the back and tell me how easy it’s going to be and how nice they’re going to be to me. I knew it’s going to be hard. I know I’m going to have to work at this. I know we’re going to have to perform,” the 33-year-old said as per ESPN.

Josh Berry made a name for himself in the NASCAR Xfinity Series racing for JR Motorsports. Now that he finally has made it into the Cup Series, it will be interesting to see how the racing veteran performs.

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