RELATED: Full race results | Updated Chase Grid
LOUDON, N.H. — When Tony Stewart announced the 2016 season would be his last as a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver, he meant the entire season.
He wasn’t going to mail it in after missing the first eight races of the year, the result of a broken back.
He wasn’t going to give up when NASCAR officials fined him $35,000 for speaking out about the policing of lug nuts.
Even mired so deep in the points standings one had to turn the page to find his name, Stewart wasn’t ready to take the easy way out and coast through the remainder of the season.
NASCAR gave Stewart, a three-time series champion, a Chase waiver, meaning he was still considered eligible for one of the 16 spots in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, upon his return to competition.
At the time, the consensus seemed to be “What’s the harm? He might crack the top 30 in points, one of the Chase requirements, but the likelihood of Stewart winning a race …”
Last month in Sonoma, Stewart did just that. A week later, he broke into the top 30 in points at Daytona.
And here Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Stewart rallied for a runner-up finish to Matt Kenseth (Joe Gibbs Racing), climbed to 28th in points to further solidify his chances at going after a fourth, and final, title.
RELATED: All of Stewart’s Sprint Cup victories
The Sonoma victory, which included a pass for the win on the final turn, gave the team more than a ticket to Victory Lane, he said.
“I don’t think Sonoma necessarily was an indication of why we ran good here, but it gave us a lot of confidence,” Stewart, 45, said following his performance. “It gave me a lot of confidence. It gave Mike (Bugarewicz, crew chief) confidence, really picked the morale of the team up.”
Sunday’s finish likely only deepened that conviction.
A two-tire stop during the first caution period of the New Hampshire 301 vaulted Stewart from outside the top 10 into sixth. Once back under green-flag conditions, Stewart realized the move was a mistake.
“It really bit us,” he said. “We got back to about 22nd, I think, and from then on it was just kind of fighting our way back.”
It wasn’t until there were only 50 or so laps remaining that the No. 14 reappeared in the top 10, Stewart having picked his way past once car and then another.
A spate of late cautions, four in the final 36 laps, saw the field bunched back up for restarts. The last three, he said, “were tough.”
“You needed to be on that outside line and hope that the guy on the inside didn’t push you up,” Stewart said. “The restarts are always, always interesting here, but if you could get through them and get through the chaos, you’ve got a shot at it.”
The final restart, with 11 laps remaining, saw Stewart lined up sixth, trailing Kenseth, SHR teammate Kevin Harvick , Kyle Busch (JGR), Joey Logano (Team Penske) and Jamie McMurray (Chip Ganassi Racing). He passed all but Kenseth, finishing 1.982 seconds behind the race winner.
“I think when Tony wants it, he’s kind of hard to beat,” JGR owner Joe Gibbs said afterward. “I didn’t like the fact he jumped up there at the end. I didn’t like the restart there. That made me nervous because I’ve seen Tony before.”
Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the series’ next stop a week from now, although Stewart will be knee-deep in track ownership duties much sooner. The Camping World Truck Series heads to Eldora Speedway, which Stewart owns, in Rossburg, Ohio, Tuesday and Wednesday.
RELATED: Timeline of Stewart’s injury, recovery, run for a title
Still, he was able to take time to soak in his team’s latest accomplishment before heading off for what’s sure to be a busy week.
“This weekend probably what I’m most proud of is we really weren’t that strong, I don’t think, off the truck,” Stewart said. “I mean, we were OK, but there were guys that were three tenths faster than we were all day on Friday and even yesterday they were a solid two-tenths faster than we were.”
Bugarewicz worked “all night” prepping for Sunday’s race while Stewart was at Eldora. “My phone would vibrate … and it’s 11 at night and he’s got a question still that he wants feedback on, and that’s the stuff I like about him,” Stewart said.
“I mean, he’s a workaholic. … For a guy that’s not been the head guy on the pit box for very long, he’s got a lot of savvy about what’s going on there.”
I feel like things are kind of gelling around us … now everybody is just working, and I felt like from where we were on Friday to where we ended up today, it was a lot of momentum and a lot of gain through the weekend.”