Rebel With a Cause: A Season With NASCAR Star Tony Stewart

by Monte Dutton

Monte Dutton’s Rebel With a Cause provides an inside look at emerging NASCAR superstar Tony Stewart’s 2000 racing season. Stewart’s impressive 2000 campaign has not disappointed the fans who applauded his stellar rookie year, 1999. In 2000, Stewart not only racked up impressive wins, but his fierce competitive spirit and his tell-it-like-it-is attitude have made him a fan favorite. He has made headlines with his dramatic victories but also with his occasional scraps on and off the track with Jeff Gordon and other drivers. Tony Stewart is, without a doubt, one of NASCAR’s most rebellious heroes as well as one of the sport’s best young drivers.

Genres: Nonfiction

282 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2001

About the author

Monte Dutton lives in Clinton, South Carolina. In high school, he played football for a state championship team, then attended Furman University, Greenville, S.C., graduating in 1980, B.A., cum laude, political science/history.

He has written regularly about NASCAR since 1993, and has written for the Gaston Gazette (Gastonia, NC) since 1996. He was named Writer of the Year by the Eastern Motorsports Press Association (Frank Blunk Award) in 2003 and Writer of the Year by the National Motorsports Press Association (George Cunningham Award) in 2008. His NASCAR writing has been syndicated by King Feature Syndicate in the form of a weekly page, “NASCAR This Week.”

Monte Dutton is also the author of Pride of Clinton, a history of high school football in his hometown, 1986; At Speed, 2000 (Potomac Books); Rebel with a Cause: A Season with NASCAR’s Tony Stewart, 2001 (Potomac Books); Jeff Gordon: The Racer, 2001 (Thomas Nelson); Postcards from Pit Road, 2003 (Potomac Books); Haul A** and Turn Left, 2005 (Warner Books), True to the Roots: Americana Music Revealed, 2006. (Bison Books); and is an Editor/Contributor of Taking Stock: Life in NASCAR’s Fast Lane, 2004 (Potomac Books).

The Audacity of Dope, 2011 (Neverland Publishing) is his first novel, and he is hard at work on his second.

Reviews

[Darth Jader · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book that follows a young Tony Stewart in his second year racing in NASCAR. I wish I had the pleasure of enjoying this book when I first become a fan of NASCAR in the early 2000s as I probably would have ended up picking Tony as my favorite driver and not Jeff Gordon. I loved how outspoken Tony is and how he never took any BS on and off the track. The author did a good job chronicling in short chapters all the events of a chaotic 2000 season for Tony, especially the media controversy that lead to his struggles in the first half of the season. It was interesting following his seasons through the perspectives of his team and a noted media member like Monte Dutton. I really enjoyed this book and, even though the 2000 NASCAR season is long gone, I still felt that the book is as good to read today as it was when it first came out.

[Kellyanne Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good read if you're looking to learn more about Tony Stewart - you will learn a lot.

[Roxanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

You have got to love crabby, Burger King eating Tony Stewart. He is quite a legend for his driving and his crabby personality.