RELATED: Stewart to miss beginning of Cup season
The Stewart-Haas Racing team announced in a statement Thursday afternoon that owner-driver and three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart, 44, won’t race at the beginning of the season after Stewart injured his L1 vertebra in an all-terrain vehicle accident over the weekend.
The team will need to decide who to put in the season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 21 (1 p.m. ET, FOX) and perhaps beyond. For any substitute driver, the seat time next weekend would be valuable in preparing for the Daytona 500.
The timing of the accident — only two weeks before NASCAR Speedweeks begins — makes naming a driver to temporarily take Stewart’s seat a markedly more difficult process. At this point, most teams have selected their full-time drivers for 2016 — some of whom would have certainly considered filling in for Stewart a prime opportunity.
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For now, the list of potential Stewart fill-ins is purely speculative, but here are a few options for early in the season:
• Elliott Sadler: The former Cup driver and NASCAR veteran who is driving the No. 1 OneMain Financial Chevrolet for JR Motorsports in the XFINITY Series this year might be a candidate for Stewart’s seat. The Chevrolet connection they share is critical and the two drivers are friendly. As of Thursday, there was no word whether SHR had contacted Sadler, who was unavailable for comment.
• Justin Allgaier: He’s another JRM driver and former Cup competitor who is an option. Again, the Chevrolet connection is important and Allgaier is coming off two seasons in the Cup series driving for HScott Motorsports. That team is now fielding a car for Clint Bowyer, who has been named to replace Stewart in the No. 14 Chevrolet in 2017 following the three-time champ’s retirement this year.
• Ty Dillon: He is competing full-time in the XFINITY Series and already has a ride for the Daytona 500, but he and Stewart not only share the Chevrolet connection but also the Bass Pro Shops sponsorship between the two series.
• John Hunter Nemechek: A less likely possibility may be going with a young up-and-comer such as Nemechek. The 18-year-old son of Cup veteran Joe Nemechek scored his maiden NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win in 2015 at Chicagoland in a partial season campaign. He is set to run a full Camping World Truck Series schedule this year, but might be considered a viable temporary option for the No. 14.
• Bobby Labonte: On the other end of the spectrum, there is Stewart’s former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, the 2000 Cup champion. He has run a partial schedule in recent seasons and has competed in only seven races since 2014.
Until a substitute is named, the conjecture will be at full throttle. Stewart’s team did not offer a timetable for how long the champion will be out of Sprint Cup competition, but it did state that Stewart, “is expected to make a full recovery and return to the No. 14 Chevrolet in 2016.”
MORE: SHR’s statement updating Stewart’s condition