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Season Review: Tony Stewart
- Updated: December 6, 2016
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2016 Race-by-Race Results
Three-Time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart announced in September 2015 that the 2016 season would be his 18th and final season behind the wheel. The year started with Stewart on the sidelines due to a back injury sustained in an off-road all-terrain vehicle accident and ended as part of the 16-driver Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. While vacationing on the west coast in late January, Stewart’s ATV went airborne and landed hard, causing an L1 vertebra fracture. Following rehabilitation, he returned to competition at Richmond International Raceway in April to embark on his final full-time season at NASCAR’s top level. “As soon as the doctors said they were happy with my scans, I wasn’t going to wait any longer to get back in my racecar,” Stewart said. “I wanted to make the most of my last season in Sprint Cup and I had been on the sidelines long enough.” Stewart’s return, and first start with new crew chief Mike Bugarewicz, resulted in a 19th-place finish and was followed by a sixth-place effort the following week at Talladega Superspeedway, with relief driver Ty Dillon assisting. Following a string of races where Stewart showed flashes of speed but settled for disappointing finishes, he finally returned to the top 10 with a seventh-place effort at Michigan International Speedway in June. “That’s the type of weekend I was waiting for, proof that we can do the job,” Stewart said at the time. “I’d rather have this than win a race and run 15th, 20th the next week.” If seventh was satisfactory at the time, the following race two weeks later would be enough to put him over the top. A confident Stewart went to Sonoma Raceway and took home the 49th win of his career – the first since Dover in 2013 – and his third victory on the California road course. Stewart’s …
