Tony Stewart News

Read what's happening with Tony Stewart.

Early Accident Hobbles Stewart at Homestead

After rising to 19th from his 36th-place starting spot in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season finale Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Tony Stewart was on his way toward securing a solid finish in the 267-lap race around the 1.5-mile oval.

But when a multicar accident involving Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Casey Mears, Aric Almirola and Ty Dillon clogged up the backstretch on lap 47, Stewart’s No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS became collateral damage.

Qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Season Finale

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS, led the four-car Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) contingent Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway by setting the 13th-fastest lap in qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season finale on Sunday. Harvick turned a lap of 30.779 seconds at 175.444 mph on the 1.5-mile oval in the second round of knockout qualifying.

“I don’t know how much that had to do with being the very first car on the racetrack with no one in front of me. Nobody had been on the racetrack for that first run, but the balance was good. I didn’t have any issues,” said Harvick, the reigning Sprint Cup champion who earned the title by winning last year at Homestead. “Then on the second run as I was coming to green it was just extremely tight to the center of turns one and two. 

Let’s Do It Again

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. (Nov. 18, 2015) – Winning a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship is no small feat, let alone three. Being a three-time champion is an accomplishment only a handful of drivers have experienced, and Tony Stewart became the most recent Sprint Cup driver to have won three or more series titles when he hoisted the championship trophy in 2011, a triumph preceded by his first series championship in 2002 and then his second three years later in 2005. 

Stewart is four years removed from his last driving championship, but he’s only one year removed from being crowned a two-time championship-winning car owner, a title he earned courtesy of Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) driver Kevin Harvick winning the 2014 Sprint Cup championship. Having survived the Eliminator Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Harvick goes into this weekend’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway looking to do it all again. It’s an opportunity for Stewart and Harvick to win back-to-back series titles, something that hasn’t been done since car owner Rick Hendrick won consecutive championships with driver Jimmie Johnson from 2006 to 2010. 

Stewart Finishes 27th at Phoenix

When Sunday’s Race for Heroes 500k NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race was delayed six-and-a-half hours by rain, a long weekend at Phoenix International Raceway became that much longer for Tony Stewart.

Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), struggled with an ill-handling racecar throughout the Phoenix race weekend. It led to a 31st-place qualifying effort on Friday and a 27th-place finish in the race on Sunday.

Race for Heroes 500k Qualifying

Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS, led the four-car Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) contingent Friday at Phoenix International Raceway by setting the second-fastest lap in qualifying for the Race for Heroes 500k NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday. Busch turned a lap of 25.196 seconds at 142.880 mph on the 1-mile oval in the final round of knockout qualifying.

“It’s great,” said Busch, who won at Phoenix in April 2005. “The Haas Automation Chevy has been fast since we got here. The way that this weekend is shaping up for us, it’s a great start. We know we need to win. The car, the crew and everybody we are all clicking on eight cylinders. We just didn’t quite get the pole, (Jimmie) Johnson put down an awesome lap, so congrats to him. We are outside pole and we will go from there.”

For Love of the Game

KANNAPOLIS, N.C., (Nov. 11, 2015) – “For Love Of The Game” is a novel turned motion picture that was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Shaara and actually published posthumously in 1991 after the writer’s son discovered the manuscript. The fictional tale tells the story of baseball great Billy Chapel, who’s nearing the end of his career and is in the midst of pitching a perfect game while contemplating a career-ending decision after learning of his impending trade to a different team.  

Having already decided that the 2016 season will be his last as a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver, Tony Stewart is in no such quandary. For more than 35 years, it’s the love of his game that has fueled Stewart. And one of the venues at which that affection has been most palpable is Phoenix International Raceway, site of Sunday’s Race for Heroes 500k. 

Short Day for Stewart in Texas

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), finished 42nd in the AAA Texas 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. An early-race accident caused substantial damage to the No. 14 Chevy and forced the team to call it a day after just 52 laps of the 334-lap contest around the 1.5-mile oval. 

Stewart had just cracked the top-20 when the competition caution was displayed on lap 25. After reporting that he needed more rear grip, the team made a chassis adjustment, changed four tires and added fuel. Quick pit work placed the three-time Sprint Cup champion in 16th-place for the lap-29 restart.  

AAA Texas 500 Qualifying

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS, led the four-car Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) contingent Friday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth by setting the second-fastest lap in qualifying for the AAA Texas 500  NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday. Harvick turned a lap of 27.552 seconds at 195.993 mph on the 1.5-mile oval in the final round of knockout qualifying.

“Our Budweiser/Jimmy John’s team did a great job in keeping up with the changes that we needed throughout the three rounds and we were able to keep it pretty consistent,” said Harvick, who has back-to-back runner-up finishes at Texas. “I got my entry a little bit screwed up into (turn) three that time and got it pointed the wrong direction in the middle of the corner and then I had to put a wheel in it and got it cocked sideways and scrubbed some speed. All-in-all just a continuous improvement throughout the rounds and wound up being pretty good.”  

Capital Gains

KANNAPOLIS, N.C., (Nov. 4, 2015) – Tony Stewart turned in a workmanlike performance last Sunday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, where he raced to a 10th-place finish after having to start at the rear of the 43-car field due to an accident in practice the day prior that sent him to his backup racecar. After the 500-lap race around the .526-mile oval, Stewart noted that he played a bigger role than just wheeling his No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS around in circles en route to his 300th career top-10 finish in 587 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts. 

“We did something in happy hour (final practice) with this second car that, to be honest, it was actually something I had a little input on,” said Stewart after the race. “I’m not very smart, and it wasn’t because of me, for sure, but it was Chad (Johnston, crew chief) and I and everybody working together and trying to find a solution that might fix our problem.”

Stewart Finishes 10th at Martinsville

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), scored a 10th-place finish in the Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. It was his 300th top-10 finish in 587 career Sprint Cup races and his 17th top-10 in 33 career Sprint Cup starts at Martinsville.

“I’m happy with it,” said Stewart after scoring his best result since finishing ninth Aug. 2 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. “We’ve struggled the last three races we’ve run here. We did something in happy hour (final practice) with this second car that, to be honest, it was actually something I had a little input on. I’m not very smart, and it wasn’t because of me for sure, but it was Chad (Johnston, crew chief) and I and everybody working together and trying to find a solution that might fix our problem. We kind of made the change and stuck with it and knew that we weren’t exactly where we wanted to be in happy hour, but felt like in the race it was going to be better, and it was.”