Lewis Hamilton looked at Tony Stewart, smiled and gave a thumbs-up. “Shake and bake. That’s what we’re going to do,” Hamilton said Tuesday as he climbed behind the wheel of Stewart’s # 14 Chevy at Watkins Glen International to prepare for a day like no other in his racing career. And that’s exactly what the two star drivers did in an event dubbed the Mobil 1 Car Swap at The Glen, with Hamilton taking the helm of a non-open-wheel race car for the first time and Stewart hopping in an F1 car. Not even a cool, drizzly day that forced them to use rain tires at the storied road course could dampen their spirits. Hamilton wowed the crowd, spinning the tires of Stewart’s Chevy as he left pit road and turned six laps. The track was slowly drying after a morning rain, and when he was finished, Hamilton did an impressive burnout as the crowd roared. After a shaky departure from the pits, Stewart got up to speed fast in the McLaren Mercedes MP4-23 despite not having driven an open-wheel car in a decade. Among his four laps, he turned a fast one of 1 minute, 42 seconds in tricky conditions. That was 8 seconds faster than Hamilton’s best setup lap, which Hamilton ran on a much wetter surface.(Associated Press/ESPN.com)
AND: Before Tuesday’s ride swap with Lewis Hamilton, there was a section of the Watkins Glen International road course Stewart had never seen, the .95-mile boot-shaped section called-you guessed it-the “boot.” After racing on it in both a Sprint Cup and a Formula One car, Stewart would like to see NASCAR incorporate the boot into its August Cup race here. “I enjoyed the long course,” Stewart said. “I’d never been around it till today. I told (NASCAR executive and pace car driver) Brett Bodine when we got out of the car after our setup runs that I would like the opportunity to see us having a shot at running the long course. I think it would create more passing opportunities, for sure, and it’s just such a historic racetrack, and there are some really cool corners down there that we don’t get a shot to run on a Cup weekend.” Jimmie Johnson said much the same thing after running a Grand-Am race at the Glen last year. Armed with the endorsements of Stewart and Johnson, WGI president Michael Printup plans to lobby NASCAR president Mike Helton, vice president of competition Robin Pemberton and senior vice president of racing operations Steve O’Donnell about running the full course. The tradeoff would be a reduction in the number of laps on a longer course.(Sporting News)(6-15-2011)
