Stewart makes 600th Sprint Cup start count

PHOTOS: Stewart through the years | All of ‘Smoke’s’ wins

Three-time champion Tony Stewart made his 600th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start Saturday night, taking the green flag for the final time at Kentucky Speedway — and he had a memorable showing in the Bluegrass State, notching a fifth-place finish to bolster his position in the Chase Grid.

Stewart, 45, started his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 22nd in the 40-car field for the Quaker State 400. He ranks 24th on NASCAR’s all-time starts list, two behind James Hylton and just ahead of active drivers Matt Kenseth (596 starts) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (595). Among active drivers, only part-time veterans Michael Waltrip (10th place at 783 starts) and Bobby Labonte (13th at 728) outrank Stewart.

“Smoke” ran in the middle of the pack for most of the evening, but excelled at the end during a late-race strategy call. As drivers pitted late during the final fuel run, crew chief Mike Bugarewicz called for Stewart to save fuel aggressively. His driver complied, as Stewart climbed from just outside the top 15 to a fifth-place finish, behind teammate Kurt Busch.

It was reminiscent of Stewart’s win at Sonoma Raceway in June, when a late-race decision to pit also paid off beautifully.

“With the way the first half of this race went, we got in survival mode there and still wanted to race hard, but you didn’t want to do anything that was going to jeopardize finishing the race and capitalizing on the misfortune of the guys that are around us in points had,” Stewart said. “You are not really going to race anywhere else the rest of the year like this, so I don’t think it’s an indication of what our season is going to be like, but we ran anywhere from 11th to 22nd, pretty much just stayed in that range all day (until the end).”

Stewart’s previous best finish on the 1.5-mile track was 11th, achieved in 2014.

Zack Albert contributed to this report

Drivers with 600 Sprint Cup starts