Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson airplane ride goes to the dogs

MIAMI BEACH — Jimmie Johnson learned a lot about Tony Stewart by what was on the menu — or not — during a cross-country flight in early 2004.

Johnson, then a second-year Sprint Cup driver two seasons removed from winning the first of his six Sprint Cup titles, had bummed a ride aboard Stewart’s private plane following a test session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Both drivers were slated to run in the Rolex 24 sports car race at Daytona International Speedway, and Stewart had offered Johnson a seat.

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Johnson had hoped to be offered one of those “darned nice steaks” he noticed in a Styrofoam cooler aboard the jet, but instead learned the extent of Stewart’s philanthropy and his feelings for the two racing dogs he’d rescued.

“I get on his airplane, and there are two greyhound dogs,” Johnson said Friday during media day preceding the Sprint Cup championship race Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. “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.’”

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The episode, Johnson said, demonstrated the “vast difference in his personality” after the pair had previously had a major dispute with each other at the Daytona 500.

Stewart will race in his last Sprint Cup Series race Sunday on the same day Johnson will race for his record-tying seventh championship. Stewart plans to retire from NASCAR racing following the season finale. Johnson — one of four title contenders along with reigning champion Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Joey Logano — hopes to tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr. for most titles in NASCAR's premier series.

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