Tony Stewart will end his NASCAR Sprint Cup career as a three-time champion. Stewart was in the running for his fourth title until Sunday’s race at Dover.
While Stewart finished 13th in the Citizen Soldier 400, it wasn’t enough to advance to the Round of 12 in the Chase. Stewart was one of four drivers eliminated after the first segment of NASCAR's playoffs. He missed it by 11 points.
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“I’m pretty excited about our day," Stewart said. "We were much better than we were yesterday. Really proud of our team. We kept making it better all day.
"That is good as we had.”
Stewart locked into the championship-determining field earlier this season with his win at Sonoma. He announced prior to the season that this will be his final full-time season of racing in the Cup ranks.
Stewart still has two drivers in the Chase — Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch — through his ownership role at Stewart-Haas Racing, though, so don’t count out his making an appearance as a champion at season’s end. But it won’t be a as a driver.
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The popular driver finished 16th in the opening Chase race at Chicagoland and 23rd at New Hampshire last weekend, putting him in a tough position entering Sunday's Dover race.
Harvick endured his own rough outing on Sunday, going to the garage early with a track-bar mount issue and spending the rest of the race running several laps down.