One of the most iconic pairings in Sprint Car racing history is no more as Tony Stewart Racing parted ways with Donny Schatz on Tuesday afternoon, ending an 18-year tenure that produced eight titles on the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and nine victories at the Knoxville Nationals.

On Tuesday night, FloRacing's Kyle McFadden conducted an exclusive phone interview with Stewart, discussing a number of topics, including why he made the decision to part with his longtime driver, the timing of Schatz's release, the difficulties of keeping up with ever-evolving technology of the sport, the lengths at which he went to try and give Schatz the right engine program, misconceptions about him and his team, and the future of his Sprint Car team.

See the entire interview with Stewart below in a question-and-answer format.

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Kyle McFadden: The decision to part ways with Donny, why after Knoxville? I know you said it came down to performance, but why at this point in the season?

Tony Stewart: I mean, it's kind of similar to the decision to announce the SHR deal, (when Stewart-Hass Racing's NASCAR operation shut down). I mean, this: There's never an ideal time. I mean, the hard part is the Sprint Car offseason gets shorter and shorter every year. And, you know, it’s just a scenario where it's just time for a change.

Donny’s been miserable driving the car and we've been miserable trying to find solutions, and we're not mad at each other. It's just frustrating for everybody involved. And I don't even know, if his level of frustration, if he even would have made it to the end of the year. You know?

It’s just, I feel like timing-wise, I mean, the Knoxville Nationals, I thought all things considered — we got a couple lucky breaks to get him in the A-main on Saturday — but he made the best of it. Climbing up to 11th was a solid effort, you know? It’s just everything else has just been not good. He's not happy driving the car and everybody's on edge and it's just not a healthy situation.

So at some point, you got to sit there and look at it from the standpoint that if we do this now, it gives Donny time. He’ll find something here in the short term to finish the season, but it gives him time to get working on a package with somebody to get something set up for next year, you know? And the same for us.

Yeah, it's not ideal, but I don't know, even if we finish the season out, if it would have been ideal. I mean, I think, like anything else, there's that silly season and everything. People get making deals before the year's out. And, you know, we're closer to it than we realize, as far as the end of the season.

It's just an awkward deal, I guess, in all reality, but there's just never a good time. But like I say, the best thing is that it gives both of us time to work on what we're going to do for next year and, you know, we'll both sit there and figure it out. Obviously we got Kerry (Madsen) in the car.

We've had Kerry before driving my car, and, you know I was impressed with him. So I think he'll he'll come in and do a solid job right out of the gate, and, you know, we'll kind of figure out where we're all at. But definitely, after 17-and-a-half years, I mean, it's tough. I mean, it's tough to part ways like this.

But at the same time, I mean, you look at how we've been running and, you know, you look how unhappy Donny’s been at the racetrack and stuff, and it's like, we need to … this needed to happen for both of our sakes, I feel like.

McFadden: You know you can field race-winning cars. I know Donny knows he can win races still. So I guess when it comes down to it, the technology has changed a lot, right? And just the mechanical approach to Sprint Car racing, I feel like that’s changed a lot. And your team has tried staying on top of that, I’m sure that's been difficult?

Stewart: Yeah, but I think it's always been that way. I mean, motorsports in general, and especially anything in the automotive industry. I mean there's so much technology involved.

You don't see anything like that in basketball or baseball necessarily. Football stays the same, basketball stays the same. The fields are the same. The courts are the same. The balls are the same. Nothing changes technology-wise there.

But motorsports is probably the biggest area where you do see a change, but it's always been that way. It's always been a constant state of evolution. I asked Jeremy (Elliott from sprintcarunlimited.com), I said, ‘How many teams do you know that have made it 18 years?’

How many team combinations? It just doesn't happen. So I’m proud of that. I mean, but it doesn't mean it makes it easier to have to make this change, you know? It's no different than the stat of people that are married. I mean, over 50 percent of marriages end in divorce.

I mean, nobody goes into it with the intent of down the road separating. And, you know, we didn't start that way either. And, you know, my thought and I've told my group is that as long as Donny Schatz wanted to drive a Sprint Car, I wanted to have a car for him until he tells me that he didn't want to drive a Sprint Car anymore, and that was my intent.

But as time's going on and as things have changed, we’ve struggled. Shit, I mean, we've invested a ton of money in a new motor program and now, even again here recently this year.

So it's not like we've all thrown in the towel and just given up, but I mean, we've exhausted it. I've exhausted every resource and every option I feel like I've had to try to get the car where he's happy with it, and we've just kind of run out of options. At some point, you got to just say it's just not working and we're not able to get it where he wants it. Maybe it's just time for a change.

That's for both of our sakes. It's not a selfish thing on my side. It's as much for him as it is for us, you know? I think too much of Donny to just watch him continue to struggle. At some point, you feel helpless, like things and ideas that have come up, or things we need to change, we've changed before. And it hasn't moved the needles. At some point, you just got to sit there and go, is this just not the right situation anymore? I feel like that's kind of where we're at.

McFadden: If you don't mind sharing, was this a mutual decision between you and Donny to part ways or no?

Stewart: I don't think so. I don't think Donny was happy to get the phone call (Tuesday) morning about it, but I don't think anybody really does, especially when you've had success with each other.

But somebody’s got to give, and somebody's got to make that hard decision. I'm not going to speak for him, but I would venture to say there's probably a couple times during the season up to this point where he's probably thought he might need a change too.

It’s who gives in first and, like I said, this isn't a situation where I'm upset with him. I feel bad that we haven't been able to get him happy in the car like we used to. I feel like we've thrown the kitchen sink at it.

We've literally tried everything. We've had three crew chiefs during that stint. We've had three different motor programs. We've been on every shock package that there is available. We tried literally every shock that's available, we've tried different torsion bars. We've tried everything. We haven't just been sitting on our hands. We've tried to figure this out.

It’s sort of to the point where I don't know what else to do. I don't know what else to do to get him the feel he's looking for with motors and chassis and all that. So at some point, you know, it's kind of like I told Jeremy, I said it's the definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

At some point, you just got to say, this isn’t working anymore. It’s not the personalities that isn't working. It's just whatever it is that we had just isn't working anymore.

It’s going to be good for Don, too. I mean, he'll not necessarily reinvent himself, but, I mean, he's going to get in somebody else’s car, he’s gonna have a different package and he'll figure out how to make that work, like no different than he did with us.

Just the way it's going, though, it’s just not working for either one of us at this point. I've got too much respect for him keep beating a dead horse, so to speak.

McFadden: It seems like you really care about about the team, you care about the performance and you care about Donny. I feel like there's a misconception about you that some have, that it’s, like, ‘Oh, well, you weren't giving Donny your best.’ But it seemed you tried everything. Like, as you said, I don't know how to give him anymore than I gave him.

Stewart: Right. You know, I guess that's the frustrating part. It’s the frustration of … it’s a reputation that we've had.

Celebrating 25 years this year. I mean, it's a milestone for our program. This isn't the way we want to finish out our 25th season by any means. It's frustrating, in the short amount of time today, reading comments of people.

It makes you really wonder, do people literally think that way? Is that truly the way they think? Do they truly believe what they're writing? And if they really do, it's probably one of the most disappointing sides of this to sit there and know the phone calls we've been on with Ford and with Ron Shaver and with Paul Kistler and Andy Durham that helped us get the Ford program off the ground.

I mean, none of these people that are writing all the bull— that we're reading, none of them have any clue what it takes to run a race team and what it takes to build a program and to try to constantly chase a moving target with technology and everything. And it's just really frustrating.

It sucks to sit there, and this isn't just somebody that sat in my race car and I didn't talk to. I mean, we didn't go on vacations all the time together or anything like that, but we've known each other for 18 years, you know? And to sit there and for people to sit there and say the stuff they're saying, it's probably the most disappointing part of it today, and something that I didn't even think about because I was worried about Donny.

I was more worried about our program and how all of us were going to come out out of the other end of this. And then to sit there, it just makes you sit there and go, ‘Why do we even try when people sit there or have that idiotic approach of saying the stupid s— that they say?’

It just, it's really frustrating and disappointing to have to live through that part of it for no reason, for people that just literally don’t have a clue what it takes to build a program.

You know, if they're so smart I'd like to see them on a program, you know?

It'd be really fun to watch them step on their dick and suffer, and think they know all the answers of what it takes to a professional race team.

McFadden: Like you had said, you've ran three different motor packages in recent years. What's different, or maybe what was different if you could explain about this motor package, before when you went to Ford. Or just like, what are the differences between them that you can best explain?

Stewart: I mean, the reason we went to Ford in the first place was that Don was in a period where he just wasn't happy with his motors.

We made the switch on the NASCAR side to the Ford program, and I remember when Ford had their 360 motors and they were badass and bad to the bone. So, had conversations with Ford about saying, ‘Hey, would you ever be interested in trying to develop a Sprint Car engine again?’

And that's kind of how it started. Donny wasn't happy with the engine package and so I tried to find a solution, and took a big leap in doing that. I mean, I literally spent just short of $3 million on this Ford program, and don't even have a motor to show for it right now.

So for people to sit there and say, ‘we haven't tried and we haven't put our best effort,’ they're full of s—, and that's the frustrating part about it.

I mean, I quit driving a Sprint Car because Donny was feeling things in a motor that I wasn't feeling, and I felt like I was a bad teammate and a bad owner for not feeling the same stuff Donny was feeling. So I stepped down out of my own race car, put Kerry in it to try to get somebody in there that might feel more than what I was feeling, to try to help develop this motor for Donny.

And it’s ended my Sprint Car career because of it, but that’s the dedication I had to the program, was that I cared more about getting Donny happy with the motors than I did myself being in a race car. And so I think, again, that's one of the most frustrating aspects of the bull— that I've read today, and the frustration that I have today at this point.

It's not Donny doing that. It's just dumbass race fans that don't know what the f— they're talking about. So we developed, we worked through the Ford stuff, and there's setback after setback with that, and Ford's working hard to resolve all those issues.

But in the meantime, we literally didn't have … I mean, it’s the same thing (Kevin) Rudeen is having. They were out of motors and fortunate enough that Ford got two new motors for him to run, but there's no way that we could have had Kevin's team and my team, and had motors for the Knoxville Nationals. The biggest race of the season.

I basically had an insurance policy. I ordered three motors last fall, and got on the waiting list to get motors. I knew how hard it was to get motors at that time, so I knew it was a safe investment for me, that if Ford was able to get everything we needed and we got back on track, that I could sell those motors because there was a demand for them.

So I wasn't going to lose anything there, but I basically created my own insurance policy, by ordering the motors, but we were just to the point where we were having motor problems that were just because everything that we had was the initial batch, and we didn't we didn't have anything fresh.

Everything was was worn out and timed out. But we didn't have anything to replace it with. So Ron Shaver, bless his heart. Ronnie busted his ass to patch up and put band-aids on everything to get us through races. Instead of running 10 nights on a motor, we were getting three nights out of a motor and having to send them to California and get them rebuilt.

It got real expensive doing that, so thank God, like I said, we had the insurance policy of getting with Paul Kistler, who I've had a great relationship in the past with. When I drove 410s, that's the motor package I ran, was Kistler’s. And I loved him. I never had a problem with the motors.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, it's like, we got to do something, you know? So I called Paul and got on the list, trying to get our stuff. We got our stuff. And thank God it happened at the time when we needed it the most.

None of that's a fun process to go through. Shoot, teams try to stay loyal with motor packages and chassis builders and everything. It's not like that's not an easy process to go through because all motors have different feels to them, and you got to match that to driving styles.

It’s been a big process trying to get a motor to be in the car that Donny was happy with.

McFadden: There's like a lot of layers to it, it seems. So I guess moving forward, you'll be scouting out and using this time from now until the end of the year to see who you'll hire for next year, right? I'm sure your Sprint Car team's not going anywhere? You’ll be a fielding a car next year. Is that right?

Stewart: Yeah. I mean, the biggest thing is, it’s all in steps. I mean, the first thing we need to do is get somebody else in the car that can help us evaluate where a program is.

It's like, where are we? Where are we at? What do we really need to work on? And so we've got to reevaluate our program at this point before we worry about next year, we got to figure out where we're at.

But yeah, this isn't a situation where we're trying to leave the sport.

And that's that's the other frustrating thing. I mean, my wife, reading comments and people blaming my wife (Leah) is the most ludicrous thing I've ever seen.

I mean, of all things, we're a f— racing family. She's a racer. And nobody's been more supportive of every venture, whether it was when we met with the All Stars, with Eldora (Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio), with (the now-defunct) SRX (series), with Stewart-Haas. I mean, nobody was more supportive of all of it than her.

And again, it's just, you read so much stupid s— by stupid people that have no clue what the hell they're talking about.

It just creates a level of frustration that just baffles me. I told Jeremy, I said, ’At the end of the day, honestly, it makes me feel better about myself because you read so much stupid s— from stupid people, and you're like, if they really truly believe what they're writing, I feel better about myself every day when I go to bed.’

McFadden: Maybe this is too soon of a question to ask, or maybe you like haven't thought about it, but are you going to keep the No. 15 or are you going to change it back to No. 20 or No. 14? Because the No. 15 is Donny’s number, and I know Kerry drove the No. 14 a few years ago when he drove for you.

Stewart: You know, honestly, we haven't even thought about it. I would say at some point. I mean, because of the owner points on the World of Outlaws, we'll probably keep the 15 through the rest of the season, for the owner points.

After that, I can see going back to the 14. I would love nothing more for Donny to be able to have his number at the end of the year.

McFadden: Well, I guess if there's anything for you moving forward, you'll have a pretty good selection of drivers you could reach out to, or they could reach out to you. There's a few guys on the market that I'm sure would fit your program.

Stewart: Yeah, that's, like we said, my phone's been very busy, so there's a lot of interest out there, which makes me feel good.

I mean, we’ve had two or three years here in a row where haven't had very good results and it shows that, you know, peers and people that we race against still have faith in our program. So that does make you feel good as an owner at least.