With a nearly 20-year career as a NASCAR race car driver, followed by a career as a team owner, it’s no surprise that Tony Stewart has amassed a collection of memorabilia that would make any NASCAR fan go weak at the knees.
In the basement of his Columbus, Indiana home, the NASCAR legend has created the ultimate man cave. Along with his full-size arcade games, pool table, and race car mounted on the wall, Tony Stewart also has a truly incredible assortment of racing helmets.
President of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Doug Boles, got an inside look at Tony Stewart’s awe-inspiring collection via a tour from Stewart himself. “I have over 350 racing helmets,” Stewart told Doug Boles. “So it covers everything…not even all of them are racing helmets. We have an NHL goalie helmet, Supercross riders’, football players’, then racing. Most of them are racing helmets, obviously.”
“This wall where all the helmets are back here wasn’t even designed to be for helmets. We actually designed it to be a trophy case. Then once we realized we had more helmets than trophies, we decided to switch it up and make it a trophy case for the helmets.”
“I’m proud of my collection here. We cover everything from Formula One to IndyCar to NASCAR…a lot of dirt track racing, road racing, even drag racers.”
Tony Stewart Shares the Stories Behind His Favorite Helmets
Though he has hundreds of incredible helmets in his collection, Tony Stewart, of course, has his favorites. After giving Doug Boles an overview of his hoard, the Stewart-Haas Racing owner began pointing out those particularly special to him and his career.
He started with an Aflac helmet, explaining that he got it in a trade with fellow NASCAR legend Carl Edwards. “When Carl Edwards and I raced for the championship in 2011 at Homestead,” Stewart said. “This was the helmet in 16 that he traded. He went back, found that helmet that he wore at Homestead in the championship race, and that’s the helmet that he brought to trade with me.”
“Carl’s a class act,” Stewart continued. “And even he knows that this helmet means the world to me, to have this in my collection. It’s at eye-level. I always want to make sure I can see that.”
“If I had to pick one, if I absolutely had to pick one, this would be my favorite,” Stewart said, pointing to a Lowe’s Jimmie Johnson helmet. “It’s Jimmie Johnson’s 7th championship-winning helmet, and that was in 2016. The day of my last race in NASCAR, he wins the championship. I got done with my interviews, went to the stage, congratulated him, gave him a hug. Then he goes, ‘Hold on a second.'”
“He went to one of his people, they went to the car, got that out of the car, brought it back wet, sweaty, everything, and handed it to me. I told him, ‘This is on loan. When you want this back, this is yours.’ And he goes, ‘No, it’s yours.'”
