Tony Stewart ties his best finish of the season with a 4th-place run at Martinsville
Tony Stewart cracked a few smiles after Sunday's race at Martinsville.
Sure, he had been passed for the lead by eventual race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. with four laps to go, but Stewart had just climbed from his car after finishing fourth, a result that tied his highest finish in what has been nothing less than a tumultuous season.
Stewart had a good car throughout the entire race and was near the front almost the whole day. He was in fifth with the race's final caution flag flew and as the cars ahead of him took tires, Stewart and crew chief Chad Johnston elected to stay out. Since the No. 14 team wasn't in the Chase, they figured it was the team's best shot at a win.
It didn't work. Junior was so much more faster than Stewart that his pass and door-slam of the three-time champion with four laps to go was more of a honk by a driver telling a slow car in the fast lane to move over rather than a gouge for track position. But Stewart had no regrets about the decision.
"If we had to do that 100 times over we'd do the same thing," Stewart said. "So we didn't have anything to lose. It was worth the gamble -- where we were at in fifth, you didn't know who was going to do two tires, you didn't know what could happen. Something could happen on the pit stop. A lot of variables that could have gone wrong there. And I'd rather have taken a chance and fight at the end like that."
"We still ended up a spot better than we were before the caution came out, so i think that's about all you can ask for on this Bass Pro/Mobil 1 Chevy."
Stewart missed three races in August after he struck and killed Kevin Ward Jr. at Canandaigua Motorsports Park in a sprint car race on August 9. Stewart returned to action at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Labor Day weekend, and in September, an Ontario County (N.Y.) grand jury declined to press charges against Stewart in the matter.
The grief from the incident was visible on Stewart's face when he addressed reporters for the first time following the accident at Atlanta and when he held his first press conference after the announcement of no charges. The grin following Stewart's finish on Sunday was one of his first public displays of positive emotion since August.
On the track in the Cup Series, the year has been a struggle for Stewart. As he returned from a broken leg suffered in August of 2013 in a sprint car crash and Iowa, Stewart and team haven't been able to have consistent speed. And when they've had fast cars, they haven't stayed fast for an entire weekend or even an entire race.
Stewart was fast all weekend at Martinsville. And you could see the relief that it brought to him. He was competitive for the entire race and the chances of extending his streak of years with a victory in the Cup Series to 16 seem a little brighter than they did before Sunday.
- - - - - - -
Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
