RICHMOND, Va. – Three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart by no means a factor in a Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, but the Stewart-Haas Racing driver earned a respectable 19th-place finish in 2016 Cup debut.
Behind the wheel of his No. 14 Mobil 1 Advanced Fuel Economy Chevrolet for the first time since sustaining a back injury while vacationing with friends in Arizona in January, Stewart wasn’t a factor in the 400-lap race, but still stayed in the limelight.
Starting 18th, Stewart slid back a few positions early in the race, but as the race settled into a long green-flag run, his car adapted and the No. 14 Chevrolet moved forward.
During the first run of the day, Stewart found himself protecting his lead lap status and despite what seemed like an endless battle to keep leader Carl Edwards at bay, Stewart lost his spot on the lead lap, only to see the event’s first caution flag fly laps later.
While battling to regain his position back on the lead lap, Stewart’s left-rear tire blew on Lap 269 of 400 after contact with Joey Logano. His team made repairs and he surprisingly remained one lap down.
To his credit, Stewart remained in a positive and uplifting mood throughout the race and kept his best foot forward which ultimately paid off to the opportunity to get back on the lead lap on Lap 327 when the seventh caution flag flew on for an incident on the frontstretch between Landon Cassill and Ryan Ellis.
Like a man on a mission, Stewart had to rally from the tail end. A caution nearly 25 laps later helped put around cars on the lead lap where he then used the remainder of the laps to claw his way to 19th.
Afterwards, a rather jubilant Stewart climbed from his car and noted the fun he had.
“This place is so cool anyway,” said Stewart. “It’s always been my favorite race track. Like we predicted, a day race we’d be all over the race track. That’s what made it fun. The drivers got to dictate it today as far as…. You weren’t just stuck in one line. You had the ability to move around and change lines. We got in a spot there with a group of five cars racing for position once and it was fun because the five of us totally ran the track totally different.
So, it made it a lot of fun. We got the lap down there. I got a lap down and almost drove back by and got my lap back. But Carl (Edwards) was strong. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hang on long, but I was going to hold on as long as I could and hope we got a caution.
“It just seemed like we would get really close to being able to get that Lucky Dog spot back, and something would happen and we’d miss it by one. So, magic cautions coming out at wrong times for us. But it was fun. I had a good time and I’m looking forward to running the rest of this year with these guys.”
Despite never have the opportunity to work with new crew chief Michael (Mike) Bugarewicz, Stewart said it didn’t feel like the pair were new to one another.
“It didn’t feel like our first race together, mainly because just the races that we have been through together this year,” added Stewart. “I mean I’ve been to seven of the eight races that I’ve missed. Being on the radio with him and being on the pit box and communicating with him, it really shortened that learning curve up. I don’t think we really missed anything. I feel like we got off to a really good start together. I don’t think there is a communication gap that we have to worry about.”
As for his health, it wasn’t an issue. Stewart was ready to do it again.
“Line them up again and let’s run another, hell, make it 800 laps,” he said. “Line them up and I’ll run 800 laps right now and not have a problem. There will be a bunch of these guys falling out of the seat if they had to run 800 more laps, but I will not be one of them.”
It’s a good thing the race didn’t go another 800 laps Sunday, as moments after finishing the race, “Smoke” was headed to clean up and then take a short plane ride to Pennsylvania to attend a race in the All Star Circuit of Champions series, which he owns.
“I have to go do my second job now,” he told Motorsport.com.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway for next Sunday’s GEICO 500, where Stewart is expected to start, but climb from his car at the first opportunity to XFINITY Series regular Ty Dillon.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
