Stewart’s return means Brian Vickers and Ty Dillon will no longer be driving the No. 14, eliminating two excellent part-time fantasy options. His season debut was delayed by a back injury and subsequent surgery in February, but the three-time series champion will return to the driver’s seat and compete at Richmond in Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400. I want to make the most of my last season in Sprint Cup, and Ive been on the sidelines long enough.After Sundays race at Richmond, Stewart will participate in a Goodyear tire test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Stewart will return to full time racing again at Kansas.
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Busch won at MI in his second race back and went on to claim the 2015 Sprint Cup championship.
By HANK KURZ Jr. Age 44, injuries – a badly broken lower right leg in 2013, a burst fracture of his L1 vertebra in January – have all factored prominently into why Stewart hasn’t won a Sprint Cup since June 2013 and collected just eight top-five finishes over his past 90 starts.
In case you missed it – and most everyone outside the insular NASCAR world did – at a sponsor event on Wednesday, Stewart criticized NASCAR abandoning a rule that once required a wheel to have all five lug nuts fastened.
Knowing how many drivers have had to come in to pit for loose wheels, to retighten lug nuts, for vibrations, or for missing 2 lugnuts out of 4 (not 5, 4).
“When Tony informed us of the fine, we didn’t agree with it and no one agreed with it and we thought there was something we should do about it”, Hamlin said Friday at Richmond.
NASCAR stepped in and fined Stewart ,000 due to a violation for Section 12 of its rule book, which reads in part “actions that could result in a $10,000-$50,000 fine include disparaging the sport and/or NASCAR’s leadership”.
Hamlin thinks Stewart’s stature and experience should count for something. “It’s not bit anybody yet, but I guarantee you that envelope is going to keep getting pushed until somebody gets hurt”.
“I think this was a pretty black-and-white thing from the drivers’ perspective to have a guy who’s coming back, he’s being interviewed, he responds to the question and he got fined for it”.
On the track, NASCAR has taken away downforce from the cars, which has not suited former Indy vehicle driver Stewart well.
“With Tony, there is plenty of experience behind what he says and a lot of people listen to his opinions because he has a lot backing him up”, Logano said.
Tony Stewart will make his 2016 season debut this weekend at Richmond. “This is not the way to do this”.
“I think it’s a safety issue that we should look to address before there is a negative outcome with it”, Kurt Busch said Friday at Richmond.
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“We just believe that you should be able to express your opinion unless you’re just terribly trashing the sport itself and things like that”, he said. We do take offense that anything we do is somehow leading toward an unsafe environment. It was also a very short-sighted move, because Stewart’s original comments have received far more publicity than they ever would have otherwise. The group added Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch this year to replace outgoing members Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle and Jamie McMurray. The sport has proved for years to be more reactive than proactive, but there is too much risk involved to wait and make a reactionary change. “Mostly it’s all positive”.
