From Christian Bale’s outburst on the set of Terminator Salvation to the more recent tirade of Pittsburgh Steelers kicker Jeff Reed over a convenience store bathroom that was out of paper towels, the rich and famous are getting pretty freaking angry these days.

The tantrum that has Americans holding their collective breath today (well, NASCAR fans, anyway) is the latest product of Tony Stewart’s notorious temper - a temper that, up until very recently, seemed to be under lock and key thanks to Smoke’s seemingly successful anger management treatment with a psychologist a couple of years ago.

According to Yahoo!Sports writer Jay Busbee, Stewart and his teammate Ryan Newman collided after Newman’s tire blew out, a jumble Stewart attributes to Goodyear’s quality:

“[...] apparently this is their marketing strategy, to get press. I’m tired of talking about them, tired of it being an issue. Talking about them now isn’t going to change anything; it falls on deaf ears.”

(If you’re a NASCAR fan, you probably remember Stewart’s Goodyear rant last season.)

You might be thinking, “That doesn’t sound so bad. The man’s fed up with Goodyear, but he doesn’t have any other options - of course he’s frustrated.” That’s what I’m thinking, anyway.

However, Smoke turned his rant on some poor reporter who asked him if he thought the tire trouble which resulted in his having to fall back on a backup car would affect his chances of winning today’s Daytona 500:

“I don’t know, rocket scientist. I’m sitting here with a backup car. What do you think? [...] We’ve got a lot of work to do. I’m pissed. I’m not happy, I’m not cordial. If two guys wrecked, that’s one thing, but the manufacturer has the sole deal, they don’t have any competition, and they can’t give us a tire to keep us from having wrecks.”

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t snicker at that. I’d also be lying if I said that the disappearance of Angry Tony for about two seasons didn’t leave a hole in the level of entertainment NASCAR brings. (Again, if you’re a NASCAR fan - and if you’ve been a NASCAR fan for any decent amount of time - you realize that, whether it’s because of careless driving or inadequate equipment, flaring tempers are often part of the deal.)

However, getting mad over isolated events and outright uncontrolled anger are two different things - the former being pretty normal, and the latter being one that can have devastating effects on a person’s health. Stewart seemed to be much happier - and mellow - once he put the brakes on his fury. I think it’s too soon to say Stewart’s gone back to his old ways, but I do hope his gripe with Goodyear is just that - a gripe, and not a foreshadowing of the return of Angry Tony.

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