This home is fit for a king … or a true sportsman such as NASCAR champion Tony Stewart.
He’s currently looking to sell his 415-acre ranch for $30 million.
Carrie Holle, realtor and owner of the Carrie Holle Group, joined us Wednesday on “Life.Style.Live!” to share some background of the most expensive home in Indiana.
The home of the Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion’s Hidden Hollow Ranch spares no expense. A true playground for adults, this 19,713 sqft property has something to offer everyone. From a 9-acre lake stocked with trophy bass to sprawling forests filled with turkey, 300 deer, and 15 elk, to an in-home gym, bowling alley, golf simulator and more. Activities are abundant.
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – All week, Tony Stewart downplayed the significance of his final race at Indianapolis.
He promised not to cry, not to get sentimental.
When the Brickyard 400 ended Sunday, he backtracked a bit by inviting current friend and former rival Jeff Gordon to share one final lap with him at their home track. They drove slowly around the 2.5-mile oval, side-by-side, waving to the fans who had cheered them for so many years.
“It’s probably the last time we’ll be competing here, and I couldn’t think of a better guy to share that moment with,” Stewart said after finishing 11th.
Not long ago, that kind of scene seemed an impossibility.
Stewart’s fierce, sometimes temperamental personality often clashed with Gordon’s generally good-natured, low-key demeanor to life and racing.
But over the past five years, the two Indiana drivers with similar backgrounds developed a bond and became close enough friends that they wanted to add another memorable chapter to the long history at this 2.5-mile oval.
The day began with a heartfelt speech from Gordon at the drivers’ meeting, in which he thanked Stewart for the impact he has had on the sport. When Gordon finished, Stewart received a standing ovation.
Later, Stewart returned the favor.
“It meant the world to me you know I don’t know how that all came about. Someone said something to me about Tony would like to do something like that and I said, ‘Well, let’s get through this last restart first,'” Gordon said. “It meant the world to me to have a friend and a competitor (want to do that).”
Both former Cup champions expected more from themselves on the track, though.
Stewart acknowledged on the parade lap that he thought he could win the race and spent most of the day running in the top 10 – until being hit with a speeding penalty late in the race. He later called it a mistake.
Gordon, the only five-time winner of the Brickyard, came out of retirement to replace Dale Earnhardt Jr. for Hendrick Motorsports. Earnhardt is fighting concussion-like symptoms.
Gordon qualified 21st and wound up finishing 13th, in his first race since November, and acknowledged he “got his butt kicked” on the restarts.
Regardless, the estimated 50,000 fans at Indianapolis Motor Speedway mostly got what they came to see.
“They will be rooting for Stewart and I am sure rootin’ for Gordon,” 61-year-old Indianapolis resident Bob Joslin said before the race. “They are going to be the favorites.”
While it’s been billed as their final race, it’s not likely to be their last time at the track.
Gordon expects to lead the Sprint Cup cars down the front straightaway at least one more time after the injured forced him to decline driving the pace car this year. On Friday, Gordon promised Speedway President that he would serve as the pace-car driver at a future Brickyard.
And Stewart remains the co-owner of a Sprint Cup team that will likely return with his replacement next year.
But on Sunday, none of that mattered. Sharing a big moment with a friend, did.
“Thank you to Tony Stewart,” Gordon said. “It meant a lot to me, that he invited me to come take that last lap with him.”
SPEEDWAY, Ind. (WISH) — As Tony Stewart competes in his last race, the driver’s parents are looking back at a fantastic career.
Pam and Nelson Stewart have watched their son — nicknamed “Smoke” — grow into the NASCAR star we know today. His legacy began 56 miles from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in Columbus.
Favorite moments for Pam include wins at the Brickyard and his charitable work. For Nelson, Tony’s triumphs and tribulations make the win at Sonoma stand out.
Watch their conversation with 24-Hour News 8’s Laura Steele in the video above.
TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) – At a track that has always been good to his family, in front of an adoring crowd that so clearly favors him over everyone else in the field, Dale Earnhardt Jr. cruised to an emotional first win of the season.
NASCAR’s most popular driver won Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, where he received a thunderous ovation as he pumped his fist outside the car window during a slow victory lap.
He stopped at the flag stand to grab the checkered flag and flew it out his car window as he savored his trip around the track and into victory lane.
It is Earnhardt’s sixth victory at Talladega – but first since 2004 – and he choked back tears after he climbed from his No. 88 Chevrolet.
“It’s just real emotional. I haven’t won here in a long time. It was my daddy’s birthday a couple of days ago, and I’m just real emotional, man,” he said.
The late Dale Earnhardt, a first ballot Hall of Fame inductee, won 10 times at the Alabama track. He would have celebrated his 64th birthday Wednesday.
Earnhardt Jr. won four consecutive races at Talladega from 2001, after his father’s death in the season-opening Daytona 500, through 2003. He then finished second in back-to-back Talladega races before grabbing his fifth victory in 2004.
But his dominance ended that season, then came several years of slumping results on the track. He finally turned it around last year with a victory in the season-opening Daytona 500, but poor strategy in this race last year cost him any shot at the victory.
His fan base was livid over Earnhardt’s decision to lay back in the field last May, and he vowed to not do it again. On Saturday, he admitted he feels a sense of responsibility to his fans to perform well at Talladega.
Earnhardt delivered Sunday, leading a race-high 67 laps and easily winning when no one from a single-file line of cars behind him could challenge him.
The win almost certainly put him in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, and was Earnhardt’s first with new crew chief Greg Ives.
“Everything is just so good for me right now, my personal life, my racing, the team I’m with, I don’t know why,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t feel like I deserve it. I just feel overcome, you know, with a lot of emotion.”
Jimmie Johnson finished second as Hendrick Motorsports dominated the race. But Johnson couldn’t pull out of line to attempt a pass on Earnhardt, who was watching his mirror carefully to see who from the line would make a move.
He thought for sure it would be Johnson.
“I didn’t know what he had up his sleeve, maybe they got busy behind him and he couldn’t form a charge,” said Earnhardt, who was worried in the closing laps his car was going to overheat.
“I didn’t know if the engine was going to last. I had faith in it that it would because we build fast cars and they are tough. All those guys in the motor shop and the body shop, they earned their money.”
Paul Menard was third and Ryan Blaney was a surprising fourth in the only Ford that could challenge the horsepower from the Hendrick Chevrolets.
Martin Truex Jr. was fifth and followed by Sam Hornish Jr. in another Ford, then Ryan Newman and Kevin Harvick as Chevy drivers took six of the first eight spots.
Denny Hamlin was ninth in the highest-finishing Toyota and Josh Wise rounded out the top 10.
Pole-sitter Jeff Gordon was a disappointing 31st despite a strong race car. He was penalized for speeding on pit road during the final pit stops, and the infraction dropped him to 30th on the restart with 26 laps remaining.
He was unable to work his way through the field as Earnhardt led a 10-car breakaway, and the second line of traffic struggled to catch the leaders. He was collected in a last-lap crash that began when Carl Edwards spun.
“Everybody was single file and just waiting for that final lap,” Gordon said. “You knew it was going to get crazy. They finally spread out at one to go. I was just trying to find the lane that would not just be clear but have the momentum.”
As the laps wound down, nobody seemed to want to make a move to challenge Earnhardt until finally Tony Stewart, the leader of the second line of cars, dropped to the bottom of the track in an effort to make something happen.
Only no one would work with Stewart, and he was shuffled back to a 19th-place finish after leading laps and challenging for the win.
Hamlin said his hands were tied and he couldn’t do anything to challenge the Hendrick drivers at the front unless Blaney, in front of him as they started the final lap, worked with him.
“My goal was to push Blaney, but he was going to have to make a move,” Hamlin said. “The odds were very stacked against us. The Hendrick cars and engines were just extremely tough and really I did my best just to kind of hang with those guys, but they’re definitely in a league of their own right now.”
HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) – Likely locking up a run at his record-tying seventh championship before it even turns to spring, Jimmie Johnson pulled away after the final restart with 13 laps to go Sunday, winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Johnson started near the back after failing to get in a qualifying run because of inspection issues. But the No. 48 Chevrolet was the fastest car on the track at the end of the weekend, cruising across the finish line a comfortable 1.803 seconds ahead of Kevin Harvick.
It was the 71st victory of Johnson’s career, and his fourth at the 1.54-mile trioval south of Atlanta. It also gives him an almost-certain spot in the season-ending Chase, going for a title that would tie him with Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt.
“It’s pretty much a lock,” Johnson said. “That takes a ton of pressure off.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was third, followed by Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano, who started from the pole and led 84 laps early in the race.
After a big crash on lap 305 brought out the red flag for 9 minutes to clean up the mess, Johnson found himself at the front of the pack. When the green flag waved, he got a good jump off the line, fended off Hendrick Motorsports teammate Earnhardt going down the backstretch, and was firmly in control by the time the cars came back around in front of the stands.
There was no catching him from there.
Johnson was among four former champions, along with teammate Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth, who never got on the track during qualifying. Thirteen cars were stuck in the garage after failing to pass inspection, a situation that Gordon called “embarrassing” for the sport.
Harvick, who qualified on the outside of the front row, also was sent to the back of the field after blowing an engine during Saturday’s practice. He quickly worked his way through slower cars, got to the front and dominated long stretches of the race, leading a race-high 116 laps.
For much of the day, it was clean race despite a new rules package for non-restrictor plate races, which reduced horsepower and drag while giving drivers a device to adjust the car’s balance during the race.
The first big crash came on lap 258, taking out Gordon, Denny Hamlin and Jamie McMurray. Then, on lap 305, Greg Biffle clipped Joe Nemechek going into the third turn, gobbling up four other cars and bringing out the red flag.
Hamlin started a four-car melee when he got sideways coming out of turn two off a restart. Gordon took the biggest blow, sliding off the inside of the track and smashing into an exposed inside wall – just beyond a SAFER barrier that would’ve eased the blow.
Track officials had increased the amount of padding in Atlanta after Kyle Busch smashed headfirst into an unprotected wall during an Xfinity Series race in Daytona, leaving him with a broken right leg and left foot. Busch missed his second straight Cup race, recovering at home while substitute David Ragan finished 18th in the No. 18 car, two laps down.
There are still spots at every track where drivers can take a hard hit, an issue that will surely lead to calls for NASCAR to take additional safety measures.
“It wasn’t going to be too bad, but I found the one spot where there’s no SAFER barrier,” said Gordon, who wasn’t injured. “I can’t believe that. Hopefully, soon, they’ll get that fixed.”
Newman was the only driver in the crash able to continue. Hamlin, who led 14 laps, took the blame.
“I apologize to all those cars involved,” he said. “I just lost the handle on that last run.”
Gordon was making his final appearance at Atlanta, the track where he began his Cup career at the end of the 1992 season. The four-time champion, who plans to retire at the end of the season, is off to a rough start in his farewell tour after winning the pole for the Daytona 500. He finished 33rd in the season opener, where he was also caught up in a wreck, and ended up 41st in Atlanta.
The start of the race was delayed nearly an hour to allow the track to dry after morning showers.
While the rain held off the rest of the way, the temperature was only 43 degrees when the green flag waved under low, thick clouds. Not surprisingly, the stands were not even half full, another blow for one of NASCAR’s most historic tracks, which hasn’t come close to selling out in recent years and even took down a large section of seats in the third turn before this race.
Atlanta once hosted two events a year, including the Cup finale, and even after losing its spring race still held a prime spot on the Labor Day weekend. But attendance woes led to track’s only race being shifted to the second week of the season, while north Georgia is still in grips of winter.
The result was predictable: cold temperatures and poor crowds all weekend. In fact, the sparse turnout in the stands appeared smaller than crowds of more than 50,000 that attended Supercross events at the Georgia Dome the past two weekends.
HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) – Joey Logano is on quite a roll, following up his victory in the Daytona 500 by taking the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
NASCAR is on the defensive after 13 drivers – including four former champions – didn’t even get on the track for qualifying Friday after failing to pass inspection.
Four-time Cup winner Jeff Gordon, who is retiring at the end of the season, called the situation “absolutely embarrassing.”
Logano led the final session of qualifying with a blistering speed of 194.683 mph, taking advantage of temperatures in the 40s as the sun set on the 1.54-mile trioval. He has never been a strong qualifier in Atlanta, but he’s on quite a roll after his victory last weekend in the biggest race of the year.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” a beaming Logano said. “Everything is going well for me lately. I’m trying to keep the train rolling.”
Daytona runner-up Kevin Harvick (193.792) will start on the outside of the front row, knowing he’s got his work cut out to keep up with the pole sitter.
“They’re running good,” Harvick said. “They’re on top of the heap right now.”
But most of the attention was on those who didn’t get a chance to qualify. Gordon and former champs Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth were stuck in the paddock, even after NASCAR pushed back the start of qualifying by 15 minutes in hopes of clearing everyone.
“I don’t know what to say about today,” Stewart tweeted. “Spent all of our practice working on qualifying. Didn’t even get a chance to make a lap. Frustrating!”
He added, “If we would have known this was going to happen, we could have worked on the race setup. Was a total waste of a day at the track.”
Gordon said it was the first time he’s ever missed out on qualifying because of an inspection issue.
“This is absolutely embarrassing. I feel so bad for my guys,” he said. “To not even get a chance to go out on the race track is ridiculous. The fans deserve an apology.”
At least those Stewart and the other big names will be in the race based on their points from last season, albeit starting near the back of the field.
That wasn’t the case for Mike Wallace, Matt DiBenedetto, Michael Annett and Reed Sorenson, who were bumped out of the 43-car field without getting a chance to take a lap.
Sprint Cup director Richard Buck said the teams were pushing the limits on a new rules package, which reduced horsepower and drag, all in an effort to get more grip on a high-speed track that is notoriously tough on tires. He said each of the 47 cars got a chance to go through the inspection line at least once, and some were inspected as many as three times.
David Ragan was among those who did get to make a qualifying run. He will start 17th in his first race filling in for injured Kyle Busch in the No. 18 car.
“We did see where teams were pushing it. That’s their job, trying to get every bit they can,” Buck said. “Our goal is to make sure everybody has a fair opportunity to get through there.”
He said NASCAR would be working with the teams to make sure what happened in Atlanta doesn’t occur at future races.
“We’ll tweak it where we have to,” Burton said, “to get it right.”
That won’t help those drivers who were knocked out of the second race of the season without so much as a qualifying time.
“The guys who don’t have the points, they know going home without even getting a chance to get out there,” Gordon said. “That’s a big letdown for me and for our series that this happened. There’s no way this should happen.”
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) – Joey Logano, the driver who has spent seven years trying to live up to impossible expectations, raced to his first career Daytona 500 victory Sunday as he continued to reward Roger Penske for catapulting him into one of NASCAR’s top stars.
Nicknamed “Sliced Bread” when he broke into the Sprint Cup Series at 18 because so many predicted him to be the next big thing, Logano found himself searching for a new job after four underwhelming seasons.
He was snatched up by Penske for the 2013 season after being dropped by Joe Gibbs Racing, a move that jumpstarted his career. His victory in “The Great American Race” on Sunday gave “The Captain” his second Daytona 500 title. Penske, one of the most respected team owners in motorsports, also has a record 15 Indianapolis 500 wins.
“Daytona 500, oh my God! Are you kidding me?” Logano yelled in victory lane. “I was so nervous the whole race.”
The 24-year-old from Connecticut was quiet for most of the race, which was dominated by four-time champion Jeff Gordon.
Making the final Daytona 500 start of his career, Gordon won the pole and led the field to green in the first race of his last Sprint Cup season. Gordon kept his Chevrolet out front for 77 of the first 100 laps, and led a race-high 87 laps.
But when the slicing and dicing for the win began, Gordon was mired in traffic and Logano suddenly found himself in contention. He had reason to fret, though, after Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski went to the garage with an engine failure.
Then Ryan Blaney, another Ford driver, also lost an engine, and Logano was in danger of the same fate.
But after Blaney’s engine failure set up a restart with 19 laps remaining, Logano buckled down for white-knuckle, three-wide racing throughout the field. He surged to the front and seemed to have the race under control, but a caution with three laps remaining forced him to fight for the win one last time.
NASCAR needed nearly seven minutes of stoppage to clean the track, and it set up a two-lap sprint to the finish.
Logano sat in his car thinking about a strategy, which wasn’t the most comforting feeling.
“You got a red flag, and they give you the opportunity to think of everything,” he said.
And even though Penske and a committee of team executives watch from the roof and offer advice, there was nothing in his ear with the win on the line.
“It’s funny because the whole team gets pretty quiet when you’re about to win the Daytona 500,” Logano said.
He got a terrific jump on the field, and as Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. mounted their push for the lead, a wreck further back in the field brought out the yellow flag.
It froze the field and Logano won under caution. He’s the second youngest Daytona 500 winner in history, behind only Trevor Bayne, who was 20 when he pulled off an upset victory in 2011.
Logano’s win gave Ford a sweep of the opening weekend at Daytona. Tyler Reddick won Friday night’s Truck Series race driving for Keselowski, and Ryan Reed won the Xfinity Series race on Saturday for Roush Fenway Racing.
Ford also won the prestigious Rolex 24 at Daytona in January with Chip Ganassi Racing.
Reigning Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick finished second and was followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., the defending race winner.
Denny Hamlin finished fourth in a Toyota and was followed by six-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, Casey Mears, Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr., Kasey Kahne and Greg Biffle.
Gordon was involved in the final accident and finished 33rd.
Tony Stewart’s drought at Daytona extended to 0-for-17 when he was involved in a multi-car accident on an early restart.
Stewart seemed to drift up the track into rookie Ryan Blaney, and the contact sent Stewart into the outside wall. Stewart took his car to the garage, returned to the race down 64 laps, and eventually called it a day and accepted his 42nd-place finish.
It was the first Daytona 500 in 15 years without one of the Busch brothers in the field.
Kurt Busch, the 2004 series champion, was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR as he faces accusations of domestic assault against his ex-girlfriend last fall. Suspended on Friday, he lost two appeals on Saturday that kept him from the race. Regan Smith finished 16th as the replacement driver for Stewart-Haas Racing.
Kyle Busch broke his right leg and his left foot in a Saturday crash in the Xfinity Series race. He was undergoing surgery at the same time his brother was arguing his second appeal. Matt Crafton, the two-time Truck Series champion, finished 19th as Joe Gibbs Racing’s replacement driver.