Tony Stewart's return to racing might not have gone the way he wanted, but he showed he was ready for the competition on Sunday.
Stewart made his first NASCAR Sprint Cup start of the season in the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond. He has been sidelined all season recovering from a broken vertebra in his back from an off-road vehicle crash in January.
MORE: Richmond race photos | Stewart plans to remain outspoken, despite fine
Unfortunately, he spent much of the race trying to get back on the lead lap after falling off the pace early. He rallied late to finish 19th.
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Stewart seemed upbeat after the race, remarking on "how much fun I had in it."
"This place is so cool anyway, it's always been my favorite race track and I feel like we predicted a day race we'd be all over the race track and that's what made it fun," he said during the Fox broadcast. "The drivers got to dictate it today, as far as you weren't just stuck in one line, you had the ability to move around and change lines. We got in a spot there with a group of five cars racing for position once and it was fun because the five of us totally ran the track different. It made it a lot of fun."
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For Stewart, though, simply being back on track might have been a victory in itself.
Before the race, he talked about the work put in by his team to get his car ready for this race after a mid-week decision that he could return.
Crew chief Mike Bugarewicz "and all these guys on the team, they have done an awesome job," Stewart said. "They had long hours starting Wednesday afternoon switching this thing over from Brian Vickers being in the car to getting my seat and everything set up for me. So they had a late, late night Wednesday night. I appreciate that."
On Sunday, Stewart lost ground early at the 0.75-mile track, going down a lap in the first third of the race. After that, he steadily worked his way through traffic while trying to remain the lead car one lap down and, therefore, the recipient of the free pass. Time after time, when the caution came out Stewart was one position out of that slot.
He had another setback when contact with Joey Logano – who was battling him for the free-pass spot – on a restart damaged his car and caused its left rear tire to fail. Stewart pitted, as did the leaders, during the ensuing caution. He kept working trying to get back in position for the free pass in the remaining laps.
"We got a lap down there and almost drove back by him and got my lap back but Carl [Edwards] was strong, I knew we weren't going to be able to hold on long," he said. "Just trying to hold on as long as I could and hope we got a caution. Just seemed like we would get really close to being able to get that lucky dog spot back and it seemed like something would happen and we'd miss it by one. … Had a good time and looking forward to running the rest of this year with these guys."
He finally snared the free pass and returned to the lead lap for the final 69 laps of the race. Stewart was 24th at that point.
Stewart, a three-time Cup champion, was granted a NASCAR waiver from attempting to start every race in order to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup field. He must move into the top 30 in the points to be eligible to make the field. Stewart has already announced this will be his final season as a Cup driver.