Tony Stewart looked like he might be ready to challenge for his second win in as many weeks.
He moved into the top five in Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Coke Zero 400 on pit strategy before his night ended with a crash into the wall on Lap 148 of the scheduled 160.
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The rear end of Stewart’s car just slipped wide, then Casey Mears and Carl Edwards both piled into him. Stewart clipped the car of Ryan Blaney as he lost control, while Trevor Bayne was also caught up in the crash. Stewart finished 26th.
Trouble for Tony Stewart with less than 15 to go!#NASCARonNBC https://t.co/U6TlZPwa5C
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 3, 2016
Stewart entered the race trying to break into the top 30 in the standings and be in position to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. He was on track to do a lot better than that before the accident.
Stewart won the previous Sprint Cup race, at Sonoma Raceway.
He knew he might have a chance to gain on the competition after an earlier 22-car crash took out drivers he is battling for a spot in the top 30, including Brian Scott, who entered the race at No. 30.
“We knew we might be able to gain point here, but you know it’s a coin toss that you might get in a wreck here and for us it was more trying to take care of ourselves and when that big wreck happened that really opened the door for us to really take care of ourselves," he said. "Two of the three guys that are around us in points got caught up in it. I probably should have been smart and just sat back a little bit but at that point, with 30 to go, we were in position to get a top five out of it so we had to take a chance.”
Stewart still managed to move into the top 30 in the standings. He's 30th, three points ahead of Scott.
Stewart missed the first eight races of the season after fracturing a vertebra in his back in an off-road accident. NASCAR has issued an exception to the rule requiring a driver to attempt to start every race as long as he has a win and is in the top 30 when the championship-determining segment of the season begins after the season's 26th race.