INDIANAPOLIS -- At the still-young age of 32, Tony Stewart has won just about everything there is in competitive motorsports in the U.S.

His lengthy resume includes being crowned Rookie of the Year in USAC Sprint Cars (1991), the Indy Racing League (1996) and Winston Cup (1999). He earned the IRL championship in 1997 and captured the Winston Cup title last season. He's also been a champion in USAC Midgets (1994 and 1995), Sprint Cars (1995), Silver Crown (1995) and the World Karting Association (1987) and International Karting Foundation Grand National (1983).

But there's one thing that has eluded the Indiana native throughout his racing career: a win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Whether it has been in the IRL (five times) or Winston Cup (four times), Stewart still finds himself chasing the checkered flag at the legendary 2.5-mile superspeedway. He's come close in both series -- fifth in the 2000 Brickyard and likewise in the 1997 Indy 500 -- but he still has yet to win at what he considers his home track.

Some years, he's even started at Indy in the favorite's role. He won the pole for the 1996 Indy 500 as a rookie, only to drop out after 82 laps due to engine problems, finishing 24th. In last year's Brickyard 400, he set the pace as the pole qualifier with a track record for a stock car (182.960 mph). He went on to lead more than one-fourth (43 laps) of the 160-lap event, but once again wound up with a disappointing finish (12th).

Yet, despite his struggles there, Stewart keeps coming back to IMS. Year after year, he comes back for more. And this Sunday, on the 10th anniversary of the Brickyard 400, Stewart again is back hoping to have his name included as one of the few drivers in racing history to have battled and ultimately beaten the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

"Take the one thing in your life that you're the most passionate about and you'll have a good understanding of what Indy means to me," Stewart said. "There's at least something in everybody's life that they're very passionate about, and for me that's winning at the Brickyard."

	Stewart has been smiling more often in 2003.

Having grown up less than 50 miles away, Stewart sees the track as both Mecca and albatross. He and fellow Hoosier Jeff Gordon are generally conceded each year as the sentimental, home-state favorites to win. The only difference between the two is Gordon is a three-time Brickyard 400 winner, while Stewart is still searching for his first triumph.

There's no question Stewart has the talent to win every time he drives out of the pits -- whether it's in a stock car or Indy car. Yet still he hasn't been able to beat the 94-year-old Speedway at what may now be a mind game.

"I've been a sentimental favorite and a legitimate favorite to win there before, but I've always come up short," he said. "It really doesn't mean anything to me until that last lap happens. If (we're) leading on that last lap, then it'll mean a lot.

"It's good to know that people have the confidence in you and your team that you're good enough to win there. But there's just something about Indy. It's difficult to win there. It's probably one of the hardest places to win a race. Just because you're a favorite doesn't mean it's an automatically done deal."

Stewart has a reputation of being a racing purist, a strictly blue-collar guy in a sport that has increasingly grown white collar, so to speak. He freely admits he wasn't exactly enamored with the idea of Winston Cup coming to Indy for the first Brickyard 400 in 1994.

"I was one of the 'old guard' who wasn't too excited when they said that stock cars would be at Indy, just because of the history of the place," Stewart admitted. "But we've all adapted our attitudes toward it, because in addition to the Indianapolis 500, which is what Indy has been all about for so many years, they have the Winston Cup Series, the premier racing series in the United States, and Formula 1, probably the most recognized form of motorsports in the world. The speedway has brought all of the major racing series together at one great venue.

"A lot of times people are scared of change, but as the years have gone on people have not only accepted the changes that have gone on at the speedway, but appreciated them as well."

Stewart returns to Indianapolis for this weekend's Brickyard in a much different manner than last year's event. First, he's sitting in 14th-place in the Winston Cup standings; he was a loftier seventh heading into last year's Brickyard.

Second, it was after last year's Brickyard race that Stewart came about as close to being fired from his job as the driver of the No. 20 Pontiac (Chevrolet this season) as a person could get following a run-in with a local Indianapolis photographer. The fallout was fast and furious: He was placed on probation for the remainder of the season not only by NASCAR, but suffered the indignity of an unprecedented second probation for the rest of the 2002 campaign by his primary sponsor, Home Depot.

Home Depot corporate official Hugh Miskel made the company's view of Stewart's temper outburst at Indy crystal clear: "The behavior displayed following the Brickyard 400 will not be tolerated from any member of our race team now or in the future."

That Stewart, who had several equally high-profile outbursts and confrontations both on and off the track during his Winston Cup career, was able to quickly learn how to control his noted temper was nothing short of admirable. And, that he still managed to go on to win the Winston Cup championship last season under perhaps the most difficult circumstances for any champ in series history was simply unheard of.

This season, Stewart has admittedly struggled at times on the racetrack. Just a couple months ago Stewart was at his season's low point, having dropped to 20th in the standings after the grueling Coca-Cola 600. He managed to leapfrog 12 places to eighth in the next six races, dropped to ninth after the race at New Hampshire two weeks ago, and then plummeted five positions to 14th after he (and teammate Bobby Labonte) suffered engine failure this past weekend at Pocono.

	"	Take the one thing in your life that you're the most passionate about and you'll have a good understanding of what Indy means to me. There's at least something in everybody's life that they're very passionate about, and for me that's winning at the Brickyard. "
		— Tony Stewart

Stewart appeared to have the fastest car at Pocono and led at the midway point but saw his engine blow on lap 153, so now he comes back to Indianapolis nearly 700 points behind series leader Matt Kenseth. By comparison, he was just 256 points behind Sterling Marlin at this time last season.

With 16 races remaining, odds are growing increasingly slim that Stewart -- who has only one win and five top-five finishes thus far in 2003 -- will be able to repeat as series champion. He knows it will take nothing short of a miracle; but then, wasn't last year's run to the title about as miraculous as it gets in Winston Cup racing?

"Sometimes you have to have something bad happen for something good to come out of it," Stewart said. "To be able to do that and find the positive in the negative is what I've really focused on this year. When you have a good day it's easy to focus on the good things, but when you have a bad day it's easy to forget that there is something out of the day that you can take away that was good. I've really focused, not only in the race car, but away from the race car, in just trying to find the positive in any negative that happens.

"I think there was a lot of frustration with me last year, especially when it comes to Indianapolis because I am from Columbus (Ind.) and Rushville (Ind.), and I always want to do well when we come to Indy.

"Coming back to the Brickyard and being so close so many times to having a good day and having it go south was kind of a boiling point for me. You hate to have it happen at home like that but I think we've learned a lot from it. ... I've put (the run-in with the photographer at Indy) behind me. Our actions this year, on and off the track, have proven that we've made some significant changes in the way we deal with things. Hopefully this year, we'll be able to just concentrate on getting the car a little closer to the front than where we've ended up in the past."

Crew chief Greg Zipadelli, still lamenting over Sunday at Pocono, says the negative energy that was generated there could work to Stewart's and the team's advantage at Indianapolis. For if there's one thing that has become a hallmark of the No. 20 team, it's the ability to bounce back from adversity.

"If you don't have a passion about going to Indy and trying to win, you're probably close to (being) dead," Zipadelli said. "That place is kind of like rolling into Daytona. It gives you goose bumps. There's just so much there from the past. (Stewart) doesn't have to say anything. Everybody knows it. That's something he's wanted to win since we started. We're going to do our best to help him accomplish that."

Team owner Joe Gibbs concurs that his driver has managed to not only control his temper and aggression, but also has channeled it into a positive direction.

"Winning the championship has helped," Gibbs said. "There is a lot of pressure off. He seems to have taken a step up and doesn't let as many small things bother him. The second thing is probably just a maturing process over a period of time. If you jump out there and do some things because of the amount of attention on yourself, it's a learning process. Even though we haven't had the success we had last year, I think he's handled everything very well this year."

The only question left is, what will Stewart do at Indy?

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Motorsportwriter@Yahoo.com.