Posted by Wayne G. Barber
Tony Stewart isn't anticipating a dream season in his final tour of the Sprint Cup circuit. And if it materializes, the three-time champion isn't sticking around NASCAR anyway. The Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner and driver said even the most successful campaign of his 18-season career won't cause him to reverse course on exiting the #14 Chevy after the 2016 season. "The reason I'm retiring is not performance based, but when you go into your last season, you hope you go out on top," Stewart said last week during the preseason Media Tour. "Whether the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NHL, you want to finish on top. That's the way every athlete wants to finish. If we went out there and won 15 races and won the championship, it would not make me go, 'Man, I want to come back next year.' It'd be like, 'That's the way I want to go out. I'll take that.' When (the 2016 season is over), no matter how the year went, it's done. If it's a terrible year, I'm not going to say that defined my career. The stats will show what we did over 18 years. I think no matter how the season goes, I'm going to be able to say I had a successful run in the Sprint Cup Series." Stewart has 48 victories on NASCAR's premier circuit but none since Dover International Speedway in June 2013.
Source: NBC SPORTS
Tony Stewart isn't anticipating a dream season in his final tour of the Sprint Cup circuit. And if it materializes, the three-time champion isn't sticking around NASCAR anyway. The Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner and driver said even the most successful campaign of his 18-season career won't cause him to reverse course on exiting the #14 Chevy after the 2016 season. "The reason I'm retiring is not performance based, but when you go into your last season, you hope you go out on top," Stewart said last week during the preseason Media Tour. "Whether the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NHL, you want to finish on top. That's the way every athlete wants to finish. If we went out there and won 15 races and won the championship, it would not make me go, 'Man, I want to come back next year.' It'd be like, 'That's the way I want to go out. I'll take that.' When (the 2016 season is over), no matter how the year went, it's done. If it's a terrible year, I'm not going to say that defined my career. The stats will show what we did over 18 years. I think no matter how the season goes, I'm going to be able to say I had a successful run in the Sprint Cup Series." Stewart has 48 victories on NASCAR's premier circuit but none since Dover International Speedway in June 2013.
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