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Tony Stewart is accustomed to holding court in the media center or from pit road during a TV interview. Days before perhaps his final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, he again was in command, but in a most unfamiliar territory — on social media.
Stewart, who joined Twitter in April 2009, has approximately 575 tweets from his @TonyStewart handle. That’s an average of about six tweets per month over the entirety of his account.
Monday night, over the span of two hours, “Smoke” delighted his fan base and nearly 600,000 followers with a 31-tweet barrage that was full of typical Stewart things — humor and candid observations, mainly.
It all was in celebration of his 2011 championship five years ago. NBCSN aired that race over two hours, and Stewart tweeted his thoughts for an event that has become one of the most iconic races in NASCAR. Stewart won five times during the 2011 Chase, including the final race in Miami to win the title over Carl Edwards … on a tiebreaker.
From the pre-race chatter, to the points battle to the weather to critical calls on pit road, the 2011 race had it all.
NASCAR.com will take a deeper dive into the 2011 season finale on Wednesday. Until then, re-live the race below through the eyes of “Smoke.”
.@RickAllenracing @NBCSN One of the most amazing races I’ve ever been in.
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Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart)
November 15, 2016
Crazy thing about this race is that if someone said “You’re going to win 5 races and championship” I would’ve lost that bet every time.
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Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart)
November 15, 2016
We came into this race with nothing to lose. It was so different from 2002 and 2005. There was never a time I got wound up.
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Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart)
November 15, 2016
During that rain delay I told Jack Roush: “Tell your boy to get up on the wheel because I’m coming.” He looked at me like I had 3 heads.
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Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart)
November 15, 2016
It felt like I passed half the state of Florida in this race.
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Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart)
November 15, 2016
Been told I’m supposed to be using a hashtag. So, here #NASCARthrowback
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Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart)
November 15, 2016
Just heard @DaleJarrett say I was sliding the corner. I was using the cushion. #NASCARthrowback …and the hashtag. ����
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Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart)
November 15, 2016
And here comes the rain. #NASCARthrowback
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Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart)
November 15, 2016
.@dariangrubb‘s call to pit the lap before rain was THE CALL. I could let it all hang out and put it on the line with this restart.
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Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart)
November 15, 2016
I wonder if Bob at the Dairy Queen in Columbus will give away free ice cream again tonight like he did back in 2011.
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Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart)
November 15, 2016
So, if you haven’t bought a ticket yet for Sunday @HomesteadMiami, will this make you do it? Carl’s got another shot. Just sayin.
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Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart)
November 15, 2016
Seeing all this makes me appreciate, again, the opportunity Gene Haas provided & what @dariangrubb did to make this race possible.
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Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart)
November 15, 2016
Back when @StewartHaasRcng was just an idea, Rick Hendrick told me: “I will not let this fail.” This championship was proof of that.
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Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart)
November 15, 2016
Well that was fun. Cool to see all that again. And I learned about hashtags! #Hashtag
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Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart)
November 15, 2016