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Jimmie Johnson once had Burger King with Tony Stewart while Stewart fed dogs steak
MIAMI BEACH — About 10 years ago, Tony Stewart fed he and Jimmie Johnson Burger King after treating rescue dogs to a nice steak dinner.
As Stewart is running the final race of his storied Sprint Cup career on Sunday, Johnson was asked Thursday at championship media day what his favorite Stewart story was. And the six-time Sprint Cup Series champion did not disappoint.
Johnson and Stewart were teammates in the 2004 and 2005 Rolex 24 at Daytona sports car races. The two plane-pooled from a test session to one of the races and Johnson got an idea of Stewart’s refined palate.
“I’ve gotten to know him very well over the years, and one of my big eye‑opening moments about the vast differences in his personality,” Johnson said. “Daytona 500, we’re in the transporter fighting it out. [NASCAR president] Mike Helton is not happy with either one of us. Crew chiefs and owners are there.
“And then the following year we’re racing in the Rolex 24, and he’s going to give me a ride from the Las Vegas test session down to Daytona for the 24‑hour race, and I get on his airplane, and there are two greyhound dogs. And we get up in the air, he cuts up two filet mignons which I think are probably our meals, which he feeds to the dogs, and then he reaches into a Burger King bag and throws me a Whopper. I said, ‘All right. This is interesting.’ They were two racing dogs that he had rescued and had somewhere he was taking them to take care of them.”
Stewart, a three-time Cup champ, was a true Burger King company man. The fast food chain even sponsored his car for a few races after he moved from Joe Gibbs Racing to form Stewart-Haas Racing.
Assuming he doesn’t win on Sunday, Stewart’s career will conclude with 49 career wins at NASCAR’s top level from 1999-2016. His final win came at Sonoma earlier this year where he, in true Tony Stewart fashion, slammed Denny Hamlin out of the way in the final corner to take the checkered flag.
The win qualified Stewart for the Chase but he was a nonfactor and eliminated after the first round. As he moves into more of an ownership capacity for SHR as the team transitions to Ford in 2017, Clint Bowyer will replace him behind the wheel of the No. 14.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
