Trackspotting: the 2002 season featured the implausible (a gracious Tony Stewart), the improbable (two rookies finishing in the top six) and the inconceivable (Rusty Wallace going winless). Next season could produce much of the same. (NASCAR).

There lurks in the hearts and minds of some a sense of dread as Tony Stewart's reign as Winston Cup champion begins.

What will he do at the annual awards banquet, folks fret, as if Stewart were expected to pound a massive leg of lamb on the table like some medieval king, point at those in the audience who had wronged him and order them beheaded.

Geez, a guy shoves a photographer, insults the state of Alabama, gets snippish with the media, enlists anger-management counseling and feuds with some other drivers, and all of a sudden he's a villain?

Fact is, Stewart is no different from many of today's premier athletes. He is focused, businesslike and ...