When Tony Stewart drove Formula 1!

It's Tony Stewart's birthday today. The IndyCar and NASCAR driver turns 46 today. And while he never actually competed in a Grand Prix he did get to try out a few laps in a Formula 1 car in June 2011.

That was courtesy of a car swap publicity deal organised by Mobil 1. Stewart got to drive Lewis Hamilton's Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-23 around Watkins Glen International. Hamilton in turn got to try out Stewart's NASCAR Sprint Cup car. Maybe he had an eye for a possible post-F1 career change?

As well as being a three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, Stewart is also co-owner of the Stewart-Haas Racing team along with Gene Haas, boss of Haas F1 Team. Stewart's now retired from racing, so maybe he'll start showing up to support Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen at Grand Prix events.

Before his NASCAR career, Stewart took part in US open wheel racing. He was the 1996-7 IndyCar Series champion, and he also took part in five Indianapolis 500 races between 1996 and 2001. He started the race from pole in 1996, but his best finish was fifth in 1997.
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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.