Learn more about "Smoke" and his career in racing
 Tony Stewart
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Pick a racing series. Chose a style of race car. Name a venue. Chances are, Tony Stewart has proven victorious.
The driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has scored 11 championships since he first wheeled a go-kart at a Westport, Ind., race track in 1978.
His most widely known titles are the two he scored in NASCAR's pinnacle series. The two-time Sprint Cup Series champion earned his first crown in 2002 by beating veteran racer Mark Martin by 38 points and a second in 2005 when he bested Greg Biffle by 35 points.
Championships begat championships for Stewart, as the Columbus, Ind.-native came to NASCAR in 1999 by way of the IRL IndyCar Series, where he was the series champion in 1997. And before he made his mark in Indy cars, Stewart made a name for himself in the rough-and-tumble world of the United States Auto Club (USAC). He has four USAC championships, including what at the time was an unprecedented win of USAC's "Triple Crown."
USAC's top-three national touring divisions are Midget, Sprint and Silver Crown. After winning the Midget title in 1994 and finishing 10th and sixth in the Sprint and Silver Crown divisions, respectively, Stewart went out and set a new standard of excellence in 1995 by winning all three divisions. No driver had ever won the Sprint, Midget and Silver Crown championships - divisions that run three very different types of race cars which compete on both asphalt and dirt - in a single season until Stewart came along.
A hint of Stewart's impending success could be seen when he was still a youngster, for in 1980 at age eight, Stewart had won his first championship - a 4-cycle rookie junior class championship at the Columbus Fairgrounds. Two more karting championships followed, but this time on a national level - the 1983 International Karting Federation Grand National championship and the 1987 World Karting Association National championship.
Throw in a title from the 30-year-old International Race of Champions (IROC) during that series' final year of operation in 2006, and it's clear that Stewart is in a league of his own.
He is the first and only driver to have won championships in stock cars, Indy cars and open-wheel Midget, Sprint and Silver Crown cars. And his two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships made him one of just 15 drivers who have scored multiple Sprint Cup titles.
Along the way, Stewart has won some of the biggest races in motorsports. He is a two-time winner of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard (2005 and 2007), a three-time winner of the season-opening NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (2005, 2006 and 2008) and a two-time winner of the famed Chili Bowl, an all-star Midget race at the Tulsa (Okla.) Expo Raceway (2002 and 2007). He's also notched wins in such famed USAC races as the Copper World Classic at Phoenix International Raceway (2000), the Turkey Night Grand Prix at Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway (2000) and the 4-Crown Nationals at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio (1995).
And before he was a race winner and a championship contender, Stewart was a rookie on the rise. The Hoosier won rookie of the year honors in Sprint Cup (1999), the Indianapolis 500 (1996) and USAC (1991).
"When I started racing competitively when I was about seven or eight, getting a trophy that was bigger than the other kids' was all I cared about," said Stewart, who enters his 10th year in the vaunted Sprint Cup Series in 2008. "I couldn't have asked for more out of this life. I feel like I'm a very, very fortunate person, so no matter what happens, no matter how long I race or don't race, the goals and everything that happens from here is just icing on the cake. I've been very lucky to do the things I've done."
Stewart's racing career began at age seven behind the wheel of a go-kart, with his father, Nelson, serving as car owner and crew chief.
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