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This was fun: on Tuesday afternoon, Tony Stewart and Lewis Hamilton participated in a "Seat Swap" that saw Smoke climbing into Hamilton's ride, and vice versa, for a spin around Watkins Glen.
Stewart came away impressed with the handling of Hamilton's 2008 Formula 1 car. "It's just amazing what the capabilities of the car are," Stewart said. "I told the guys on pit road out there that it's probably going to make my crew chief a little more stressed during the weekends because I'm going to want it to handle like that all the time. I don't think we're ever going to get it there."
Hamilton, in turn, was pleased with the experience of the stock car: "With the damp conditions, I was braking early, thinking this car is not going to stop," he said. "In actual fact, I could brake quite a lot later. Whilst on the TV it looks like I'm drifting all the time; I didn't feel like I was drifting in the car. Felt like I had quite a stable rear end. I was able to pick up the power. The grip was quite good through all the corners." Hamilton even got off a "shake and bake" reference while on the track.
Stewart has open-wheel experience, but even that didn't prepare him for the experience of a F1: "It's just amazing how far you can charge the corner. It's easy to see why it's hard for these guys to overtake because it's not a long distance from the time you get off the throttle on the brakes to where you're changing directions. It gives you a much greater appreciation for how hard it is for these guys to overtake each other, what that car's actually capable of. It's just incredible the technology behind it."
And this may not be the last time the two share a track. Stewart has extended an invitation for Hamilton to run at next year's Prelude to the Dream. Of course, that would mean that a Formula 1 champion would have to get his hands dirty, but perhaps it could happen.
Seat Swap thrills drivers, fans [SPEED]