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Smoke has risen: Tony Stewart on his return to Victory Lane

Tony Stewart was back to the old “Smoke” on Sunday.

Race winner Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing

Race winner Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing

GM Racing

Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
Race winner Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
Race winner Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
Race winner Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
Race winner Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
Race winner Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
Tony Stewart
Kevin Ward Jr.
A message for Tony Stewart
Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
Race winner Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet celebrates
Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing inducted into the Sonoma Raceway Wall Of Fame
Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
Race winner Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
Race winner Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet takes the checkered flag to win the race and become the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2011 champion
Victory lane: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2011 champion Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet celebrates

A win will do that for a three-time champion, particularly one who has endured an 84-race drought.

At Sonoma Raceway, Smoke turned back the clock. He was in command on the track — and in the media center where he lingered far longer than he characteristically does, savoring the moment long after most reporters were gone.

Forty-eight hours earlier, after Stewart was inducted into the Sonoma Wall of Fame during his Sprint Cup farewell tour, he acknowledged NASCAR racing simply wasn’t fun for him anymore. Stewart’s perspective changed on Sunday — at least for a few hours.

Listening to people say I'm old and washed up. I know how old I am, I know I haven't ran good for the last three years, but I've felt like if we got things right that it was still there.

Tony Stewart on his detractors

After Stewart took the lead in the Toyota/Save Mart 350, crew chief Mike Bugarewicz asked on the radio if he was having fun. The driver replied, “Trying. I'm not pissed off at anybody, so that's a bonus at this point in the race."

Stewart led the final 22 circuits for his 49th Sprint Cup win, certainly the most cathartic victory of his career.

“We had a restart with 14 laps to go on an 11‑turn track and I missed three corners,” Stewart said. “I don't know how many corners that is, doing the math, but it's, what, 160 corners, 150 some odd corners and I screwed up three of them, and the rest of the time I felt like I was the Tony Stewart that has won here and led laps here in the past.”

Overcoming a mountain of adversity 

Over the last three years, Stewart’s search for “fun” outside of NASCAR has been both harrowing and heartbreaking.

Two months after recording his 48th win at Dover in June 2013, Stewart broke the tibia and fibula in his right led driving a sprint car at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. He missed the final 15 races of the season. One year later, Stewart was involved in a fatal wreck while driving a sprint car at Canandaigua (N.Y.) Motorsports Park. Stewart returned to competition three races later, but was clearly rattled by the tragedy.

In late January of this year, before Speedweeks kicked off in Daytona, Stewart suffered a broken back in a dune buggy accident in Southern California. The injuries and requisite surgeries kept him out of action until the ninth race of the season.

“On social media, they sit there and chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp until they've got to be in front of you and then they don't say a damned word, and listening to people say I'm old and washed up,” Stewart said. “I know how old I am, I know I haven't ran good for the last three years, but I've felt like if we got things right that it was still there.”

They've never quit on me. There's days I've quit on myself and they're the guys that send you text messages and call you when you get home like 'Hey, this isn't over.'

Tony Stewart on his crew

Since his 2013 victory at Dover win, Stewart had posted just seven top fives and 10 top-10 finishes with three different crew chiefs calling the shots. Prior to the race, Bugarewicz reminded Stewart to have fun. He didn’t have to remind Stewart afterward.

“I just assumed by the look of his face that he was enjoying it,” said Bugarewicz, who earned his first Cup win as a crew chief on Sunday. “No matter what, every week, it's the last thing I say to him before I leave the car and he actually reminded me of that today. He said, ‘If I get angry and start yelling at you today, just remind me to have fun.’ I said, ‘yeah, I know how that'll work out for me.’

“But no, we always talk about that. What's most important for all of us is just enjoy it, take it in. You have to do that.”

Stewart offered up his victory to the crewmen that have stood by their driver — as well as his staff which has supported Stewart throughout the challenges of the last three seasons.

“I was thinking more of my guys than me,” Stewart said. “I'm excited for Mike to get his first win and proud that I could get him a win before the end of the year. Excited for this team. My guys have been through this whole disastrous roller coaster the last three or four years and never backed down. They've never quit on me.

“There's days I've quit on myself and they're the guys that send you text messages and call you when you get home like 'Hey, this isn't over. I'm proud for them, and it meant more for me to get it for them than for myself.”

Stewart acknowledged he’s happy with his decision to retire after this season. After three championships, nine playoff appearances and 49 Cup wins, he has nothing to prove. With 10 races remaining before the Chase cutoff and just nine points separating Stewart from a position among the top 30 in the standings, the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing team should be a lock to advance.

Looking towards the championship

But can he recapture the magic of his last championship season, when Stewart went winless for the first 26 races before scoring a remarkable five victories in the 2011 Chase?

“I think we're gaining on it,” Stewart said. “I think it's a scenario where you crawl before the walk, you walk before you jog, jog before you run, run before you sprint. It's phases that we're going through. I felt like Michigan and Pocono we got jogging, and we're getting closer to being where we need to be. We're not there yet, but we've still got time to get there, and we've gained a bunch of ground in a short amount of time, and if we can keep making that ground and keep getting better.

“I sat there the whole media day in '11 and said, I'm wasting my time and all your time being here because I'm not going to be a factor in this thing, and then we went out and won the first two races and won five of them. I'm not that smart, obviously, so don't ask me, I don't know. We'll see. We've got to get there first, though.”

Stewart says he’ll be in crisis mode at Daytona for Saturday’s Coke Zero 400 — even though traditionally, it’s been one of his better tracks, particularly in the July contest where he’s won four races in 17 starts.

“We're still not out of the woods yet,” Stewart said. “We've still got work to do, and Daytona next week can be ‑‑ we're nine (points) out right now. We can be 39 out by the time we leave Daytona, so there's a lot that can happen still.

“But I'm proud of where we are. For two guys, for a brand new crew chief and driver combination, didn't get a chance to work with each other until the ninth or tenth race, I feel like we're gaining ground here, and I'm proud of those guys. I'm really proud of what they're doing.”

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