This wasn’t the way Tony Stewart drew it up, or a fitting hand for the racing gods to deal him. One of NASCAR’s bolder personalities, Stewart’s been uncharacteristically out of sight and out of mind, too injured to compete in his final year and poised for a quiet, meek ending to a brazen career.
Of course, meek and quiet haven’t been words to describe Stewart before. He’ll finally get a chance to show they don’t apply to him on the track.
He’s already proven he’s still the same guy off it – reminding racing and its fans in the process just what the sport will soon be missing.
Stewart is good to go at last, cleared by doctors to compete in today’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway. His broken back healed, Stewart will make his debut in a season he decided months ago would be his last.
He’s a longshot for the Chase, but he’ll have a chance now to do what he’s done best. He’ll race, he’ll compete and he’ll have the rest of the season to try to recapture a final glimmer of the form that made him a three-time Cup champion.
But Stewart’s most important contribution to racing could also be his most notorious one. Stewart is as known for picking fights as winning races, never turning down a chance – whether right or wrong – to insult a reporter or admonish a driver that crosses him.
Stewart’s antics are over-the-top, immature and excessive – and every once in a while, exactly what needs to be said.
Take the current headache facing NASCAR – one of them, at least. The racing body took away a rule forcing pit crews to fasten all five lug nuts on tires during stops, raising the chances of cars heading back onto the track to race at dangerous speeds with as few as one or two bolts holding the tires in place.
It’s an obvious problem with obvious potential consequences, just the kind of situation that needs a voice to point out the madness staring everyone in the face.
It’s been Stewart before, and it was Stewart this time.
“I’m beyond mad, I’m P.O.’d at NASCAR about it, to be honest,” Stewart said, according to Yahoo! Sports. “We’re putting the drivers in jeopardy to get track position. It’s not bit anybody yet, but I guarantee you that envelope is going to keep getting pushed until somebody gets hurt.
“You will not have heard a rant that’s going to be as bad as what’s going to come out of my mouth if a driver gets hurt because of a loose wheel that hurts one of them.”
NASCAR didn’t like it, fining Stewart for his comments. How’s that for a contrast in personalities. Jeff Gordon got a farewell tour in his final season last year. Stewart got pegged for $35,000.
This is different, however. Stewart is right. Safety is at stake. Parts flying off are a hazard to everyone involved, fans and drivers included. Injury and danger aren’t worst-case scenarios, but very possible consequences.
In that case, the tell-it-like-it-is hothead can be just what the sport needs.
Stewart’s always been that way. He doesn’t go with the grain or follow the herd, and sometimes that’s to NASCAR’s advantage. When media pundits asked if wrecks were important for racing’s entertainment value, Stewart’s sarcasm couldn’t be more pointed.
“We need to extend the race until we crash at least 50 percent of the cars,” he said at Talladega in 2012.
That’s the kind of personality racing will miss when Stewart climbs out of his No. 14 Chevy for the last time. It’s important for NASCAR to have that voice that checks it when need be, and that voice – one that has garnered him plenty of enemies throughout the sport – has belonged to Stewart.
He won’t be there forever. Somebody will have to take over as NASCAR’s loudmouth. As Stewart has shown, sometimes the outrageous comment is just what a sport needs to hear.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. can’t complain about his 2016 season so far. The two-time Daytona 500 winner is sixth in the point standings, tied for second with four top-fives and tied for third with five top-10s.
All well and good. Except …
“I like finishing good, and that’s going to help us get into the Chase pretty comfortably if we don’t have any major issues, but we certainly want to win,” he said after last weekend’s race in Bristol, a second-place finish. “Going to Victory Lane is important to our sponsors, and it’s obviously fun.”
Earnhardt Jr. isn’t alone among Chase contenders trying to get over the hump at Richmond. Kurt Busch, whose six top-10s are tied for second, hasn’t won yet. Joey Logano, a preseason favorite to hoist the trophy, hasn’t taken the checkered flag, either.
Martin Truex Jr., who survived all cuts to make the Chase’s final four last fall, is still waiting for a win. So is Chase Elliott, who’s been consistent in his rookie year but is missing a victory that would cap his breakthrough.
For most, if not all, of these drivers, that win is a mere formality. They’re far too consistent and race for too strong teams to worry about missing out on the Chase at regular season’s end.
Still, going 0-fer in victories leaves the door open for odd breaks. Not that Earnhardt Jr. is spending too much time wallowing in concern.
“Yeah, I turned 40,” he said. “Quit panicking. It is what it is these days.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: The runner-up finish at Bristol was his second in a row, coming on the heels of his strong run at Texas.
Carl Edwards: Edwards was having the kind of season everyone expected when he joined Joe Gibbs Racing last year – and that was before he won at Bristol. He’s back to being a driver to watch on a weekly basis.
Chase Elliott: No growing pains here. Maybe it’s the Hendrick equipment making the difference, but the 20-year-old rookie, with finishes of eighth or better in four of his last five races, is having a much easier transition to the Cup level than the Xfinity standouts (Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse) before him.
AJ Allmendinger: Dinger looked like he was settling into a groove with back-to-back top-10s (including a second-place finish) at Fontana and Martinsville, but going 22nd and 19th the last two weeks nixed the momentum.
Kyle Busch: This might be unfair, considering Busch was going for three straight wins entering Bristol, but the wrecks, 38th-place finish and subsequent badmouthing of the short track lands him here – for now.
Denny Hamlin: A rip-roaring start to the season has been followed by an unimpressive (39th, 12th, 20th) last three weeks.
(Drew Bonifant can be reached at 369-3340, abonifant@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @dbonifant.)