Tony Stewart had a relatively quiet night in the 30th running of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race Saturday at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.
Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), started 15th and finished 12th in the annual non-points race featuring drivers who met one of the following criteria:
- Won a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in 2013 or 2014.
- Is a past All-Star Race winner.
- Is a Sprint Cup champion from the past 10 years.
- Won Friday night’s Sprint Showdown.
- Was the runner-up in the Sprint Showdown.
- Won the Sprint Fan Vote.
The 90-lap race around the 1.5-mile oval was broken up into five segments of 20 laps, 20 laps, 20 laps, 20 laps and 10 laps and featured a 22-driver field. Throughout the race, Stewart’s No. 14 Chevrolet battled a loose-handling condition.
“I never had the confidence to really hustle it because the back of the car never felt like it was planted into the racetrack,” said Stewart, who won the 2009 Sprint All-Star Race to record SHR’s first victory of any kind.
Even though the race didn’t produce the desired outcome, Stewart and crew chief Chad Johnston used the rest of the race as a test session as they tried to determine what ailed their racecar.
“Mechanically, I know we made the car tighter, but I just don’t think the car was any tighter aero-wise,” Stewart said. “We’ve got some work to do.”
The 12th-place finish was Stewart’s 14th top-15 result in 16 career All-Star Races.
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