Tony Stewart - Teacher's Pet?

Tony Stewart took a break from all things Chase-related Wednesday to help the Office Depot Foundation give away another 5,000 backpacks to Charlotte area students. The event marked Stewart's last "Backpack Celebration" of the season. And it also marked two million backpack donations for the Office Depot Foundation.

Although it's surely been a while since Smoke spent time in the classroom, it looks like he was right at home surrounded by school kids and school supplies.

We asked Smoke a few questions about what he was like as a student, back in the day. And here's what what he was kind enough to tell us:

What was your favorite subject in school?
“I liked all of my math classes. In high school, I liked physics and geometry. Those were probably the classes I liked the best. Obviously, I didn’t even realize at the time why I liked them so well, but after graduating high school and moving on, you realize how much you use all of that in racing. Those three subjects were very important and still are.”

Were you ever a teacher's pet?
“I could schmooze some teachers in the past. There were some teachers that I couldn’t get away with anything, but a couple of them, I was able to sweet-talk a lot.”

What kind of a student were you?
“I wasn’t the best student. I didn’t get the best of grades, but it was because I didn’t apply myself. From the time I was eight on, I wanted to be a racecar driver. I didn’t understand how important school was at the time, so I didn’t apply myself as well as I should have.”