NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers Dave Blaney, Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne, 3-time and defending All Star Circuit of Champions racer Dale Blaney and New York Modified legend Jack Johnson raced at Sharon Speedway on Tuesday in the inaugural Lou Blaney Memorial Classic.

Stewart won the 30-lap Sprint car feature while Johnson captured the 30-lap Modified event.

Prior to the race, the five drivers sat down to talk to the media on several topics.

Q: Talk about being here and racing in the Lou Blaney Classic.

Stewart: I’m excited about it. It’s something that all of us obviously enjoy doing. We just don’t get a chance to do it as much as we would like. That’s the great thing about Dave — he’s always invited us every year to come up and run Modified or Sprint cars. We’re real appreciative of that and excited about it.

Q: Tell us about the kind of driver that Lou was?

Stewart: I didn’t get to run with him much. I got to run with him once in the Big Blocks here, and learned really quick that there’s a potential to get older as I go because he basically blew by me and drove by me to where I couldn’t see him after about eight laps in my first time here. He was awesome. He was calm, cool and collected and he’s got two sons that are the same way.

Q: What’s it going to be like to get in the Sprint car and race?

Stewart: It’s fun. I ran them without the wings in my career, so this wing side of it is new to me but it’s something I’m real fascinated by. It’s a lot of fun and a different aspect from what I’m used to. I always look forward to it. It’s something I’m still not real good at, not as good as Dave and Dale and Kasey and these guys, but it’s something that I really look forward to and having my own team, it makes me want to get out and drive more.

Q: Decline in NASCAR numbers; do you think any of that is correlated with the fact that the majority of the drivers today aren’t like you guys, who grew up in dirt and have an existing fan base that allows them to hit the ground running.

Stewart: I don’t think so. I think some of it’s the economy and people are scrambling right now. That seems to be the biggest factor. That’s the great thing that we’ve seen at our tracks is that people that can’t afford to go to NASCAR tracks are supporting short tracks and that’s good for the health of all auto racing. It starts here at race tracks just like this and you never know where the next Kasey Kahne or Dave Blaney is going to come from. I mean it may be here tonight and we don’t know about it yet. We may be racing with them and at the end of the night you go, ‘Hey, maybe this is somebody we gotta watch.’

Q: Talk about going from racing Sprint cars to the biggest series in racing.

Kahne: I really enjoy this type of racing. I came from Midgets and Sprints, All-Stars, USAC, all those different series’ was the route that I took to get to where I am now. It seems like there’s other people coming in from different series’, there’s so many different series’ around the country that are great learning experiences. Everybody learns differently. You can learn how to drive in all types of cars, so we all did it through the Sprint cars and really enjoy it. It’s neat to be part of that and watch other kids and other guys come through there and try to learn how to race.

Q: Talk about racing in the Lou Blaney Classic.

Kasey: I’m excited that we were invited up here. I enjoy racing at Sharon Speedway. I’ve raced here a lot of times at the old Sharon and new Sharon. I never raced with Lou Blaney, but I’ve heard a lot of different stories on him — being one of the best guys on the ‘cushion.’ He was just always was really good on the dirt. It’s exciting to be a part of it. He was an awesome race-car driver and I’m glad that I’m here and supporting Lou Blaney.