“I made mistakes the last two laps”, acknowledged Stewart, who missed the first eight races of the season after injuring his back in an ATV accident during the offseason.
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“I felt a nudge when I got down there [in Turn 7], and he knew where it was, and he did the right thing doing it there”, Stewart said. From start to finish, Sonoma was entertaining on Sunday with TWO passes for the lead on the last lap.
Hamlin tried to cut off Stewart’s angle but it was too late.
In other racing news: Fifty years after its first win at the 24 hour race at LeMans the Ford Motor Company returned with a GT and won its class this year. He missed the final 15 races of the season. Stewart has announced that this will be his final Sprint Cup season.
There was plenty of love for Stewart following the race. From there it was all “Smoke” and his racing experience that kept him there till the final pass. “He gave us that opportunity and I took it, passing him on 7 on the last lap”. “Those are the kind of strategies you can’t plan for, you just get lucky”. Prior to the race, Bugarewicz reminded Stewart to have fun. When they re-entered the course, Stewart was sitting up front. I’m sure a wire was rubbing on something and just shorted out and burned up. I thought I could sneak one by.
“I don’t feel like I have to prove anything to myself”, he said.
“But no, we always talk about that. We just didn’t see a lot of that today”. “You have to do that”.
-On NASCAR CEO Brian France: “Brian France, I got in trouble – well, I started to say I got in trouble once with Brian France”.
More important than making the Chase, though, is that it showed Stewart is still the same guy he was before three years of injuries, on-track mediocrity and personal perils. Excited for this team. This was the first time Tony has won in three years. “I wasn’t going to be cordial in the exit of the corner and I roughed him up pretty good”.
Stewart acknowledged he’s happy with his decision to retire after this season. He got his first win at Sonoma and went on to win the championship.
Drivers without a win sitting on the Chase bubble? “But I’m proud of where we are. I think this is by far the best he’s run all year, and he’s in his final season, so his give a shit factor is probably really low to be honest with you”.
“It was just a chance that we took, a chance to get a win”, Bugarewicz said. There’s still plenty of contact, but everybody has gotten better at this road course racing – not just drivers, but race teams and getting their cars better and their brakes better and the setups better. I just slid up just a little in the middle (coming into Turn 11) and that allowed him to get a really good run. I’m not that smart, obviously, so don’t ask me, I don’t know. We’ve still got work to do, and Daytona next week.
The driver noted it himself in a pre-race interview with Fox Sports, when he said after his retirement in November – in the wake of Jeff Gordon’s retirement previous year – there would be no one left in the sport that was willing to take a stand.
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Thanks to Stewart, though, we saw a hell of a finish. We were teammates for a long time and we respect each other a lot.
