Tony Stewart’s weekend at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City was a series of ups and downs, and it ended on Saturday night with a 20th-place finish in the 5-hour-Energy 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
In the first Sprint Cup practice on Friday, Stewart was a lowly 31st on the speed charts. But after some serious troubleshooting, Stewart and Co. emerged for final Sprint Cup practice with an improved chassis setup. It was so improved, it allowed Stewart to set the quickest time in final practice. From nearly worst to first, Stewart carried that momentum into qualifying, where he placed his No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) eighth in the 43-car field.
Hopes were high Saturday night when the green flag dropped on the 267-lap race around the 1.5-mile oval. Stewart cracked the top-five on lap six with a pass of Kyle Larson and after 20 laps, was turning the fastest laps on the racetrack.
After 100 laps, Stewart was a solid sixth, and he advanced to third on lap 119 when he caught a caution just before he was about to make a green-flag pit stop.
Stewart stayed among the top-five for the next 32 laps of green-flag racing. When the caution came out again on lap 151, Stewart and crew chief Chad Johnston opted to make a two-tire pit stop in an effort to gain track position. It worked, as Stewart came off pit road in second place behind Kasey Kahne.
But on lap 177 when Stewart dropped to eighth, he keyed the radio and said, “I need the drivability back. Put some wedge in this thing.”
The worn left-side tires on the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet weren’t providing the grip needed to successfully navigate the progressive banking of Kansas’ corners. During the next caution period on lap 181, Stewart pitted for four tires, fuel and a left-rear wedge adjustment.
The only problem to this strategy was that many of those who had been behind Stewart opted for a two-tire pit stop, and they leapfrogged the three-time Sprint Cup champion, leaving him 17th for the lap-185 restart.
Now in traffic, Stewart was trapped in the dirty air of the cars around him. Everyone was seemingly running the same speed, and despite taking each opportunity when the caution flag waved to bolt on four fresh Goodyears and adjust the chassis of the Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 machine, no forward progress could be made.
On lap 255, 12 laps short of the finish, Stewart was forced to come to pit road for a quick splash-and-go. While it took only two second for gas man Justin White to pour just enough fuel into the car to get it to the finish, it felt like an eternity. More track position was lost, and when the final lap clicked off the board, Stewart crossed the stripe in 20th.
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