Posted on by



RELATED: Full race results | Updated series standings


Breaking down the full field for the Toyota – Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway:

1. Tony Stewart, No. 14 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Stewart capitalized on two big breaks – pitting just before the Lap 88 caution and Denny Hamlin‘s mistake on the final turn – to capture his first win since 2013. Next up for Smoke: Getting into the top 30 in points so he can qualify for the Chase. Grade: A+


2. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Fortuitous timing on a pit stop before the second caution gave Hamlin the track position that enabled him to race for the win, but a huge mistake on the final turn cost him his first Sprint Cup Series win on a road course. Grade: A-


3. Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford, Team Penske. Logano caught a huge break with 14 laps to go when he swung far too wide on a turn and didn’t (a) hit the wall or (b) damage his car when he cut sharply to his right and muscled his way back onto the track. He made it through the incident to record his third straight top-five finish. Dale Earnhardt Jr., as you’ll read soon, wasn’t as fortunate. Grade: A 


4. Carl Edwards, No. 19 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Edwards overcame an 18-second green-flag pit stop then caught a break when his car survived being sandwiched between Joey Logano (see above) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. with 14 laps to go. Grade: A-


5. Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Toyota, Furniture Row Racing. Truex was in the mix all afternoon, and his 4.2 average running position topped the field. Grade: A


6. Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. The No. 4 team employed pit strategy early on, choosing to wait until Lap 31 (under green) for its first stop. It didn’t play out in Harvick’s favor as far as vying for the win, but it did start him on his way to grabbing a top 10 after qualifying 25th. Grade: A


7. Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Busch ended his streak of finishes 30th or worse at four races, something he had done twice previously in his Cup career. Grade: A


8. Ryan Newman, No. 31 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Fantasy alert: Remember Newman for next year at Sonoma. He has improved his finish every year at the road course since finishing 25th in 2011. Sunday’s top 10 was his second in a row. Grade: A 


9. Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Kahne moved back into the top 16 in points (16th) with his fourth consecutive top-10 finish at Sonoma. Grade: A 


10. Kurt Busch, No. 41 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Busch posted his Cup-leading 14th top 10 of the season by finishing 10th for the fourth time this season. Grade: A 


11. Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Junior was on the short end of Joey Logano‘s mishap with 14 laps to go. Earnhardt saved his car, but the No. 88 sustained heavy damage to the left side, including a tire rub. Hats off to Earnhardt for bringing his car home 11th … and not bringing out a caution flag. Grade: A


12. Kyle Larson, No. 42 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Larson lost at Pit Roulette on Sunday. His number came up when he moved to the front of the field when the second caution fell just after he had completed a green-flag pit stop. But he gave back all of that track position because of a pit-road speeding penalty with 40 laps to go. Grade: C


13. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. The 48 team needed a lot to go its way for its pit strategy to play out. It didn’t, but the 48 still posted a solid finish.  Grade: B


14. AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Chevrolet, JTG Daugherty Racing. The road-racing ace led a season-high 20 laps, but all that is background noise because of a pit-road penalty for an uncontrolled tire during a caution on Lap 88. Instead of restarting sixth, Allmendinger restarted 36th. Grade: B- 


15. Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Ford, Team Penske. Keselowski’s string of top-10 finishes ends at six, but his streak of top-15 finishes is now at eight. Grade: B


16. Paul Menard, No. 27 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Menard led three laps early during a round of green-flag pit stops. It marked the fourth time in 343 career Cup starts he has led laps in consecutive races. Grade: B 


17. Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. McMurray lost a spot in the points standings to 15th. He is 16 points to the good over 17th-place Ryan Blainey. Grade: B


18. Greg Biffle, No. 16 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Biffle’s career-high streak of Cup starts without a top-10 finish hit 24. Grade: B-


19. Danica Patrick, No. 10 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Patrick led three laps during green-flag pit stops. It is the third race this season she has led laps, tying a personal best set in 2014. Grade: B 


20. Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Sonoma and Kenseth don’t mix. He has one top-10 finish in 17 starts (2008) at the track. Grade: C


21. Chase Elliott, No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. The rookie’s string of top-10 finishes ends at six, but a 21st-place finish in his first trip to Sonoma is still pretty good. Grade: B


22. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Dillon’s finish is disappointing considering he finished 17th in each of his first two starts at Sonoma. Grade: C


23. Ryan Blaney, No. 21 Ford, Wood Brothers Racing. Just like fellow phenom Chase Elliott, Blaney was making his first start at Sonoma. Grade: B


24. Casey Mears, No. 13 Chevrolet, Germain Racing. No home-state advantage for the native of Bakersfield. Mears hasn’t had a top-10 finish at Sonoma since a career-best fifth in 2008. Grade: C 


25. Trevor Bayne, No. 6 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Bayne has now finished 25th in three of the past six races. Grade: C


26. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. No surprise where Stenhouse finished. His average finish in his four starts at Sonoma is 26.0. Grade: C 


27. Aric Almirola, No. 43 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. Almirola couldn’t build on his career-best 14th-place finish at Sonoma last year. Grade: C-


28. Regan Smith, No. 7 Chevrolet, Tommy Baldwin Racing. Smith’s finish was his second best in five starts at Sonoma (16th in 2011). Grade: C


29. Landon Cassill, No. 38 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Cassill posted his best career finish in four starts at Sonoma. Grade: C


30. Chris Buescher, No. 34 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Buescher finished on the lead lap in his first start at Sonoma. Grade: C


31. Matt DiBenedetto, No. 83 Toyota, BK Racing. DiBenedetto posted his best finish in his past five starts. Grade: D


32. David Ragan, No. 23 Toyota, BK Racing. Ragan posted his best finish at Sonoma in his past four starts at the road course. Grade: D


33. Brian Scott, No. 44 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. Scott was one of five drivers to finish on the lead lap in their Sonoma debut. Grade: D


34. Cole Whitt, No. 98 Toyota, Premium Motorsports. In the 100th start of his Sprint Cup Series career, Whitt made 100 green-flag passes, one of six drivers to hit triple digits Sunday. Grade: D


35. Dylan Lupton, No. 93 Toyota, BK Racing. Lupton, 22, of Wilton, California, finished on the lead lap in his first Sprint Cup Series start. Well done. Grade: C 


36. Michael Annett, No. 46 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Annett’s 39 green-flag passes were his fewest in his three starts at Sonoma. Grade: F 


37. Patrick Carpentier, No. 32 Ford, Go Fas Racing. Carpentier finished two laps down in his first Cup start since 2011. Grade: F


38. Josh Wise, No. 30 Chevrolet, The Motorsports Group. Engine issues ended Wise’s day after 97 laps. Grade: E


39. Michael McDowell, No. 95 Chevrolet, Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing. McDowell was heading toward a decent finish when his car stopped on the track, bringing out the final caution on Lap 94 (rear gear). On the flip side, he turned 11 laps in the top 15, the most by any driver who finished 25th or worse. Grade: D 


40. Clint Bowyer, No. 15 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Bowyer’s day ended after five laps when his car filled with smoke because of an electrical fire. On the brighter side, the car Bowyer will be driving next year finished first. I guess you could call it a good Smoke, bad smoke day. Grade: E


Posted on by Staff Report



RELATED: Full schedule for 2016

Blake Shelton and his NASCAR friends are “Bringing Back the Sunshine” for NBC’s second season of NASCAR coverage under its new television deal. 

The country singer is once again performing the song — with slightly new lyrics — that will serve as the introduction ahead of each race televised on the NBC family of networks. The spot was filmed during the spring race weekend at Texas Motor Speedway in April.

Watch the video below to see a host of your favorite Sprint Cup drivers barbecuing, including an awkward “bro hug” attempt by Aric Almirola and interesting air guitar by Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr. Who plays it better? You be the judge!



NBC’s NASCAR race coverage kicks off this weekend at Daytona International Speedway with the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola on Saturday, July 2. Pre-race coverage begins at 7 p.m. ET on NBC. 


Posted on by Staff Report



Two prominent NASCAR figures — Lesa France Kennedy and Danica Patrick — have been named to the inaugural list of the “30 Most Powerful Women in Sports” by Adweek magazine.
 
Kennedy serves as CEO of International Speedway Corporation and Vice Chairperson of NASCAR. Patrick is in her fourth season driving the No. 10 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing.
 
It’s not the first time the two have shared such an honor. Kennedy was chosen as the Most Powerful Woman in Sports for 2015 in a survey conducted by Forbes magazine, which listed Patrick at No. 20 on the publication’s Top 25 list. Kennedy was also inducted last week into the Cynopsis Sports Hall of Fame, which recognized her role in helping transform the sports world and its influence on pop culture.
 
“Being chosen along with such an incredible group of women is testament to the relevancy and popularity of NASCAR and motorsports,” Kennedy said in a release provided by NASCAR. “I’m particularly pleased to be joined by NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, who is inspiring the next generation of women drivers and competitors. A profound thank you to the Adweek team.”
 
The honorees — which include tennis star Serena Williams, Olympic swimmer Missy Franklin and other athletes, TV personalities and sports executives — will be celebrated during the Clio Sports gala, scheduled July 7 in New York.


Posted on by Staff Report



RELATED: See the incident that happened at Gateway

The potential penalty phase for Saturday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series altercation between Spencer Gallagher and John Wes Townley is scheduled this week, with NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell saying that repercussions were likely.

O’Donnell’s remarks came Monday during a guest appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “The Morning Drive” program.


Gallagher and Townley collided twice during Saturday’s Drivin’ For Linemen 200 at Gateway Motorsports Park. The second crash eliminated both drivers from the race and triggered an on-track wrestling match after both drivers exited their crumpled trucks.



Both drivers were summoned to the Camping World Truck Series hauler after the wreck to consult with NASCAR officials. The incident will be discussed further once competition officials return from Sonoma Raceway, site of Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.



“We’ll look at all the video feeds we have,” O’Donnell told SiriusXM. “We’ve certainly talked to both drivers post-race and got their side of things, so to speak, but we’ll have our discussions coming back from the West Coast usually late Tuesday, early Wednesday. We’ll kind of have an evaluation and talk to everyone about where we stand on that.



“Certainly not our best moment, for sure. Two passionate drivers … you know, again, that’s part of things sometimes when emotions run high but certainly don’t like to see that where it occurred, especially out on the race track.”



O’Donnell said the competition team would weigh the potential intent or retaliation in the second incident. While O’Donnell said he appreciates the passion of drivers in the heat of competition, he said it remains a delicate border to tread.



“I think it’s a balance,” O’Donnell said. “I think we talk to the drivers, certainly we want them to show their emotions, but it’s a balance for us. We’d certainly like to see drivers if they’re going to express their emotions be outside of a race car. That’s where we really jump in and react when it’s drivers using their race cars beyond what’s normal in the race. That’s a huge issue for us and we’re going to react heavily when we have to.



“In this case, there still will be repercussions, for sure, but again we want to make sure drivers, if they’re going to do anything, are outside of their car, but certainly don’t encourage what happened at Gateway.”

Gallagher issued a statement through his team’s (GMS Racing) Facebook account.


Among other topics O’Donnell discussed Monday:



— As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to Daytona International Speedway for the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola (7:45 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), it will mark one year since Austin Dillon’s tumbling last-lap crash into the 2.5-mile track’s catch fencing. O’Donnell lauded the safety measures that kept Dillon uninjured and said that officials at the NASCAR Research and Development Center were busy with more than a dozen initiatives designed to improve safety.



O’Donnell said a safety council “within all the teams” has been created, increasing the collaborative effort toward safeguarding the sport.



“I think what often gets forgotten is this is a dangerous sport, so we’re going to do everything in our power to protect the drivers, the crews and the fans, so that’s our No. 1 priority,” O’Donnell said. “One of the things that often gets lost is when you do have an incident, one of the first things we check is, ‘did everything we had in place work?’ And when you look in the case of Austin Dillon, all belts, the seat, a lot of the different things we did with the seatbelt configuration all worked. It did its job and you saw that he was able to walk away from that incident unharmed. So those are kind of the first things, verifying.



“The second piece is, you can have assumptions and think something may work, but that takes time to go test it, to re-enact any incident to make sure it’s going to be safe, to make sure it’s going to work. And then work with the teams, and the teams have been tremendous in terms of when they know there’s something that’s going to work, getting it in the car — we do that immediately, but there is a process you’ve got to go through to make sure the assumptions work, then you’re able to go test them so you know you’re ready at high speed for everything to work as it was designated to.”



— After a particularly tumultuous race in May at Talladega Superspeedway, O’Donnell said no rules changes will be in place at Daytona, where similar rules are used to restrict horsepower and lower speeds.



“I think we looked at a lot of things more specifically around Talladega when we go back,” O’Donnell said of the Alabama track’s race date in October. “We saw the race in Daytona and certainly felt we were in a good place heading into that race, but again I go back to the number of projects that are ongoing with the race teams, so some of those may not be as visible to some of the drivers out there, but very confident that the race teams know where we are and what we’re working together to achieve.”



— O’Donnell said he applauded the full-contact racing between Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin in the last lap of Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Sonoma, where Stewart claimed a crowd-pleasing victory to end an 84-race skid.



“I’m not surprised,” O’Donnell said of the largely positive reaction to Stewart’s win. “He’s one of the more popular drivers that we have and to win in the fashion he did, this goes back to winning and what really matters in a race. I know from time to time, we talk about where’s the line in racing and hopefully, that’s understood. Going for wins and battling door to door is what we’re all about. We saw that multiple times, especially on the last lap of that race.



“So, a lot of respect between the drivers, but knowing how much a win means and propelling someone to the Chase is important. Proud of what Tony did; equally proud of what Denny did in racing each other hard and going for a win.”

Posted on by Staff Report



RELATED: Daytona schedule | TV schedule

 

Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway marked the final Sprint Cup Series race broadcast by FOX Sports in 2016. Starting this weekend at Daytona International Speedway, NBC Sports Group will provide race coverage for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR XFINITY Series events.

 

FOX Sports will continue to televise NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races through 2016.

The Sonoma race (which Tony Stewart won) concluded the 16-race broadcasting schedule for FOX, which saw recently retired Jeff Gordon join the broadcast booth to rave reviews. Mike Joy provided the play-by-play action and Darrell Waltrip, a NASCAR Hall of Famer, completed the three-person ensemble.

 

MORE: Gordon opens up on Keselowski, Stewart

This is NBC Sports’ second year of a 10-year rights agreement, which was first announced in 2013. NASCAR.com will have additional coverage on NBC’s second year — including exclusive behind-the-scenes photos from Year 1 — later this week.

 

Rick Allen returns in play-by-play duty for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. He’ll again be joined in the booth by analysts Steve Letarte (former crew chief to Dale Earnhardt Jr.) and former driver Jeff Burton, who made nearly 700 starts in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

 

Both networks still will have their weekly television shows as well. “Race Hub” airs at 5 p.m. ET on FS1. “NASCAR America” starts at 6 p.m. ET, a new time slot this year, on NBCSN.

 

MORE: Reasons behind time change


Posted on by Zack Albert



WATCH: Stewart’s smoky burnout | Bird’s-eye view of the last-lap pass

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — In a lightning-paced span of less than 24 hours, Mike Bugarewicz went from Sonoma Raceway’s Victory Lane in the heart of California wine country to right back to work on the shop floor at Stewart-Haas Racing.

 

The first-year crew chief had just made the savvy pit call of a veteran, propelling Tony Stewart to his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win in more than three years and the brink of his first Chase playoffs appearance in almost four. Accordingly after such an intense day atop the No. 14 team’s pit box and all the high-energy fanfare that followed, sleep did not come easy.

 

Movies replaced shut-eye on the plane ride back to North Carolina, and once Bugarewicz arrived at his home, he said he still didn’t feel tired. So at 4 a.m. with a hoppy West Coast IPA by his side, he finally found a quiet moment to exhale.

 

Sonoma‘s celebratory drink of choice is typically served in a chalice; Bugarewicz’s comes in a pint glass.

 

“I just needed a minute to myself to just reflect on the day and just enjoy a nice, cold beer,” Bugarewicz said Monday from SHR’s expansive stock-car headquarters. “I just sat and thought about everything that happened and how special it was for Tony and this whole organization…

 

“It’s still kind of sinking in quite a bit, but seeing all the people here at the shop, how happy everybody is and all that, it’s just a great feeling around the shop today.”

 


The joy was magnified by both the manner in which the owner/driver outdueled Denny Hamlin on the last lap and the protracted wait for his first checkered flag after an 84-race dry spell. That it also put Stewart one step closer to championship eligibility in his final Sprint Cup campaign made it that much more meaningful. Stewart now has the victory he needs; his next agenda item is to inch into the top 30 in driver points in the 10 regular-season races that remain.

 

Though the three-time champ’s actions behind the wheel played a huge part in the Sonoma success, Bugarewicz’s strategy play to give Stewart precious track position was similarly crucial. With NASCAR spotters searching to confirm reports of debris on the track, Bugarewicz called for Stewart to hit pit road ahead of the other frontrunners. When the yellow flag flew just one lap later, Stewart was out front and in control.

 

“I talked to him on the radio and said, well, our options here are either to ride it out and finish in the teens somewhere, and yeah, we’ll gain some points on 30th (in the drivers’ standings), but we all know at the end of the day we have to win to have an opportunity to compete in the Chase,” Bugarewicz said. “So I said our other option is listen to radio and when we think a caution’s going to come out, we’ll hit pit road, we’ll take the chance. If it works, yesterday’s result could come, and if it doesn’t work, well, we might finish 30th, but you know what, I don’t think the losing 10 points versus gaining 10 points is really what we’re looking for. We were shooting for wins.”

 

In other words, no pressure. Taking late-race gambles weighs on even the most experienced crew chiefs. So is Bugarewicz, just 16 races into his first season atop a premier-series pit box, getting more comfortable with the weekly tension?

 

“It still makes you nervous because if it wouldn’t have worked out, then I’d be kicking myself today, saying, ‘well, that was dumb and we lost 10 points because of it,’ ” Bugarewicz said. “With the way the format is nowadays in NASCAR, and especially in our unique situation, winning is everything. People are taking the bigger risks and the bigger chances to try and get those wins because it does solidify your Chase hopes.”

 

While Bugarewicz is less than halfway through his rookie season as a crew chief, he’s spent even less time working directly with Stewart behind the wheel. The severe back injury that kept ‘Smoke’ out of the No. 14 Chevrolet’s seat for the first eight races forced Bugarewicz to adjust, calling the shots for substitute drivers Brian Vickers (five races) and Ty Dillon (three races) in the interim.

 

In the two months since Stewart’s April return at Richmond, Bugarewicz said the communication has improved, with the 34-year-old engineer trying to keep Stewart loose and reminding him to have fun. Though the farewell season now has its defining highlight to date, Bugarewicz said he hopes to add an equally compelling postseason chapter to the story.

 

“We keep meshing better and better every week and I think if it keeps progressing like it has and we can still show that every week that we can contend, we can lead laps, we can run up front, in the top 10, top five and so forth, then absolutely we can be a contender,” Bugarewicz said. “Heck, we’ve really only had eight races together now, me and him working together and the rest of the team. We’ve got a lot of time yet to prepare for the Chase and there’s still going to be a lot of that prep work going on.”

 

Bugarewicz said the focus wouldn’t necessarily change over the regular season’s home stretch, indicating that the No. 14 team will still aggressively pursue victories when the chances arise, but with a measured approach to minimize any subpar results in the points standings.

 

Stewart sits 32nd in the driver standings, just nine points behind Brian Scott and the 30th-place threshold he needs to cross. That quest continues this weekend at Daytona International Speedway in the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola (7:45 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM), a race Stewart has won four times in his career.

 

Though Bugarewicz was already back to business Monday, his spirits were lifted by watching a jubilant Stewart’s long-awaited celebration, a festive memory to carry through one special sleepless night and beyond.

 

“It was a genuine happiness that I haven’t seen on his face in a long, long time,” Bugarewicz said. “I’ve seen a drive in him that, it’s what we all remember and we see in the highlight films and remember Tony as. I mean, that guy just wanted it yesterday and just seeing that sheer happiness in his face is definitely going to stick with me.”


Posted on by



For the second year in a row, the crew van for Danica Patrick‘s No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet was broken into in California. Crewmen said the burglary happened while they were at an event for sponsor Nature’s Bakery. When the crewmen returned to the vehicle after the event, a window was broken and bags were missing.

Most of the crew had their cell phones and wallets with them, but plenty of valuables were gone along with one hard card.

“They got everything they could grab without opening the doors. It’s seemed to be a smash-and-grab-type of robbery,” one crew member said.

 

For more pit crew news, visit PitTalks.com.


Posted on by Holly Cain



RELATED: Full race results | Standings | Chase Grid

 

SONOMA, Calif. — An hour after all the Victory Lane photographs, congratulatory pats on the back from competitors, all the smiles and toasts, Tony Stewart conceded that while leading the field with eight laps remaining in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350, he also did get a little emotional while steering his Chevrolet around the twisting Sonoma Raceway road course.

“With about eight to go it was the first time I thought, ‘hey, we might actually have a shot to hold onto this,’ and I actually got a little bit emotional thinking about it while I was driving,” Stewart said. “But you stay so focused and you have to. That was when they got racing each other and there was a bit of a gap and I had a little bit of a breather there to kind of think that once Denny (Hamlin) got closing in, it was back to business. 

“You didn’t have time to think about wine and flowers and ponies and all that stuff. I had to get back to business. But it was nice.”

 

RELATED: See all of ‘Smoke’s’ wins | Coverage of the accident, comeback 

 

As the laps wound down and Denny Hamlin‘s Toyota crept closer and closer to the three-time Sprint Cup Series champion’s bumper, the rest of the people in Stewart’s pit stall rose to cheer and support — at times tearfully. Stewart’s mother and father, his girlfriend, his close friends and his sponsor guests all stood at the track wall pumping their fists and yelling out encouragement each time he drove his No. 14 Code 3 Associates/Mobil 1 Chevrolet by them on the last turn of the winding course.

A member of his crew sat on pit wall looking down and averting his eyes, praying out loud each time Stewart whizzed by.

After Stewart led the previous 21 laps, Hamlin snuck by on Turn 7 of the final lap, forcing a rather “Stewart-like” aggressive but fair move back for the win on the final turn of the last lap as his supporters looked on 20 yards away.

Some were crying, some cheering, most high-fiving. All of them were smiling. 

 

His father, Nelson Stewart, was still wiping away tears while watching his only son celebrate in Victory Lane.

“It’s been a tough three years not just for him but everyone that’s close to him,” his father said. “I don’t know what to say. We all needed that bad. He really needed that bad.”

The “people’s champion,” as he is belovedly known among NASCAR fans, has won his first Sprint Cup Series race in nearly three seasons. It had been 84 races, multiple surgeries and plenty of emotional comebacks since his last checkered flag at Dover in 2013. He missed the first eight races this season after suffering a broken back in an all-terrain vehicle accident a couple weeks before his final season was to begin. It was the third time in four seasons that Stewart has missed races.

This win wasn’t just important in bolstering Stewart’s odds to make the playoff Chase for the Sprint Cup (he is still nine points out of the top-30 cutoff position), it was important in providing a proper farewell for the 49-time winner, three-time champion and one of the most talented racers to compete in NASCAR’s elite level.

Recently retired four-time Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon, now an announcer on FOX Sports’ Sprint Cup Series race broadcasts — came to Victory Lane still dressed in a suit to congratulate Stewart in person. Kevin Harvick and his wife, DeLana, stopped by for hugs and handshakes, as did Kurt Busch and Aric Almirola.

“It’s huge,” Gordon said, smiling broadly after speaking with Stewart. “I know from experience how big it is to win in your final season, get into Victory Lane and get into the Chase. Tony’s such an amazing race car driver and person, it was hard not to be pulling for him.

“That was a spectacular finish and that was completely Tony Stewart right there. They put him out front and he had to drive the wheels off of it to get it done.”

Even Hamlin, who dueled with the 45-year-old Stewart in the final laps, drove by on track to offer his best after a hard-fought race.

“We’ve got a lot of respect for each other,” Stewart said of his former teammate.

Then he added with a smile. “I sat there as soon as they threw the checkered, I didn’t slow down right away because I’m like, the faster I go, the less of a running start he’s going to have to plow into me. But he pulled up, he saw me, and gave thumbs up, and I’m like, great, I didn’t want to have to fight today.”

Stewart was in exactly the kind of “good place” you would expect of someone who hadn’t won in three years and was in the midst of his final season of competition.

He was vintage Smoke — a mix of self-deprecating humor and plenty of wisecracks.

“I’m going to go to Zaxby’s and eat chicken all week just in support of (Camping World Truck Series driver) John Wes (Townley),” Stewart joked about the tussle near the end of Saturday’s Camping World Truck Series race. “Hey, I’m all for it. I’m glad to see somebody had some emotion and actually did something with it. I’m going to live my life through him for this week. At least I did last night.”

Stewart said he was most grateful to earn his crew chief Mike Bugarewicz his first Sprint Cup Series victory and to see his crew “who have stuck with me” celebrate in Victory Lane after nearly four years of emotionally charged up and downs.

From the look on Stewart’s face, to the emotion of family members that love him, to his crew’s celebratory cheers, to the hundreds of fans that stayed long after the race and broke into a simultaneous chant of “Ton-y, Ton-y, Ton-y” while Stewart took photos in Victory Lane — this will be one of the most popular wins of the year no matter what.

“I’ve always told people, this is one of those tracks that it’s either you leave here happy or you leave here so mad you can’t see straight, and normally the restarts and the chaos on the restarts make you mad,” Stewart said. “We didn’t have that today.

“I told (Bugarewicz) when he asked me before the restart, he goes, ‘are you having fun?’ I said, yeah, I’m not even mad at anybody yet, and that’s pretty amazing to be within 15 laps of the finish and I’m not mad at anybody. 

“I was at least hopeful that that was going to continue, I just didn’t know that we were going to have a chance to win the race with it.

“You know, this may be our only opportunity to get in the Chase, to get a win this year,” Stewart said. “I believe in etiquette and I believe in racing guys the way that I want to be raced, and that’s not the way I like to race those guys, but Denny knew what was at stake for us and what the opportunity for us was. 

“Most of those guys did. I thought it was a great race. Like I said, we didn’t see guys shoving each other off the racetrack. It was good racing all day.”

And a happy ending anyone could appreciate.

“I got the flag at the flagstand, and I thought, well, I’ll turn and come back down pit road backwards,” Stewart explained with a wide smile. “And then I was like, this is my last time here. I want to go one more lap, and I went one more lap.  I didn’t just drive the lap, I drove up there and where the crowd was, I did burnouts and revved the motor onto the chip. I’m sure Hendrick is going to love that.

“But it just was fun to say, ‘hey, thanks.’ This place has meant a lot to me. It’s nice to ‑‑ if I don’t win another one — it’s cool to win the last one here. If it doesn’t happen again, it’s cool. I’ll be all right if this is the last place I win one.

Then he quickly added, “I’m going for more, just for the record. I see pens going crazy. I’m not saying I’m laying down, I’m saying if that’s the only one I get this year, then I’ll be content. But I don’t think ‑‑ I think you’ve known me long enough, you guys know that I don’t lay down for anything. All you’ve got to do is just give me that little bit of hope, and I’ll run with it.”


Posted on by Staff Report



RELATED: Race results | Chase Grid | Stewart Chase watch | Standings

 

Never one to mince (or soften) words, Tony Stewart had plenty to say after his win Sunday at Sonoma Raceway, a victory that saw him move Denny Hamlin in Turn 11 of the final lap.

 

His victory in the Toyota-Save Mart 350 put the Stewart-Haas Racing driver and co-owner on the verge of qualifying for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

 

After missing the first eight races of the season with a broken back, Stewart faced a difficult post-season path. Sunday’s win was the crucial first step to getting there. Since Stewart has a win, he just needs to finish the regular season in the top 30 in the points standings. He is nine points behind 30th-place Brian Scott with 10 regular-season races remaining.

 

Here’s what Stewart said in a wide-ranging post-race interview.

 

On the last lap

You can’t crack the door open with me on the last corner of the last lap and expect me to not take it. I’ll kick the door in or drive a bulldozer through it to keep it open. When you’re in a scenario like that, I don’t know if I’m going to get another scenario or opportunity to win another race the rest of the year. We’re going to try, but knowing that that could be the difference between making the Chase or not making the Chase, I wasn’t going to be cordial in the exit of the corner and I roughed him up pretty good. If it has been a street fight, he’d have had two black eyes after that. 

 

On his post-race talk with Hamlin

Probably one of the best parts and one of the parts I’ll probably remember most about this race was before I got to Victory Lane and Denny leaning in there and the first thing he says is ‘I’m so damned proud of you.’ That meant the world to me. I mean, I told him right after that, and I said, ‘You know I had to do that,’ and he goes, ‘I know.’

 

On crew chief Mike Bugarewicz

I’ve had some awesome crew chiefs, but that’s something I’m really proud of, that Mike, he will sit there the night before the race, he won’t go out, he won’t go with me to dirt races and he won’t go play when we took crew guys to Six Flags last night and he stayed home and did homework. He’s so detail-oriented on that, and all my crew chiefs have been, but they all have their own different style, and that’s something about Mike that I really respect and appreciate.

  

On the nature of the race        

Normally by the time you leave here you’re so mad at everybody, and all I do, I go back and I sit in the transporter and take a shower in there and sit for a half hour because I don’t want to see them at the helicopter pad because I’m so mad at a dozen guys, and I’m like, ‘I can’t whip them all at once.’ … Normally we have five cautions in the last 10, 15 laps. We had one, and it was for a car that was stopped off the side. It wasn’t even for a wreck. I would say it was probably a pretty good race.

 

On his team          

My guys have been through this whole disastrous roller coaster the last three or four years and never backed down. They’ve never quit on me. There’s days I’ve quit on myself and they’re the guys that send you text messages and call you when you get home like hey, this isn’t over. I’m proud for them, and it meant more for me to get it for them than for myself.”

 

On NASCAR’s future

You see Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott, there’s two guys right there that are filling seats that got this under control. I got in trouble enough one day that I got invited to fly down to Daytona Beach, Florida, and go to (NASCAR Chairman & CEO Brian France’s) office … and I was only in there for 10 minutes and then I got to drive back and fly home. But I remember him telling me, and I’m only saying this because it’s the truth, he was right, and it was something that resonated. He was like, you’re not bigger than the sport. You’re a star in the sport, but there were stars before you and there’s stars coming after you. With Jeff (Gordon) and I leaving, Chase Elliott is going to win a championship, and if the Wood Brothers keep going the way they are, Ryan Blaney is going to win a lot of races, too, and potentially win championships. … The sport is healthy, trust me.

 

On the emotional nature of Sunday’s win

This place has meant a lot to me. If I don’t win another one, it’s cool to win the last one here. If it doesn’t happen again, it’s cool. I’ll be all right if this is the last place I win one. I’m going for more, just for the record. I’m not saying I’m laying down, I’m saying if that’s the only one I get this year, then I’ll be content. But I don’t think ‑‑ I think you’ve known me long enough, you guys know that I don’t lay down for anything. All you’ve got to do is just give me that little bit of hope, and I’ll run with it.

 

MORE: Relive all of ‘Smoke’s’ win | Stewart: ‘I wasn’t going to be cordial’


Posted on by Staff Report