Tony Stewart: ‘I’m not retiring from racing … just from the Cup series’

Tony Stewart is ending an illustrious career as a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver on his own terms.

“It was a choice that was 100 percent mine,” Stewart said Wednesday during a news conference that made official his plans of retiring as a driver on NASCAR’s highest level after the 2016 season, as well as an announcement that he will be replaced in the No. 14 Chevy by Clint Bowyer in 2017. “There wasn’t any pressure from anybody. If anything, it was the opposite: I had more people trying to talk me out of it than anything.

“Everybody in their career at some point makes the decision that it’s time for a change and it’s nothing that you plan. I think it just happens. Deep down you know when it’s time to do something to make a change like this.”

Stewart, 44, was quick to point out something else: He’s far from finished. He’ll remain involved in a sport that he has helped define over a 20-year driving career – primarily in his role as part-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing. He would also like to be involved to a degree with SHR’s newly formed Formula 1 team. He also hopes to continue racing in one-off events in other series – whether it’s sprint car, modified cars or even NASCAR’s Xfinity or Truck series – when the spirit moves him.

“I’m still going to race,” he said. “I’m not retiring from racing. I’m just retiring from the Cup series.”

Stewart didn’t want to dwell on what his legacy as a driver might be. But it’s a legacy that includes 48 Cup victories and three Indy Racing League victories. He has won three Cup championships and one IRL title – the only driver in history to win championships in both series.

His most memorable moment, he said, was his 2011 Cup championship, when he won a record five races during the Chase, including the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Recent seasons have been challenging for Stewart, however. He missed 15 Cup races in 2013 after he broke his leg during a sprint car race in Iowa. In 2014, Stewart’s car hit and killed driver Kevin Ward Jr. during a dirt-track race in upstate New York. Although criminal charges were never filed against Stewart, Ward’s parents have filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

Stewart, who is on a 69-race Cup winless streak, said neither incident played a part in his retirement decision.

“Zero percent,” Stewart said. “Not one percent of it has had anything to do with it. This is strictly what I want to do. My leg feels fine; there’s nothing wrong with my leg. The tragedy, nothing is going to change that. It happened, but it’s not going to direct the rest of my life. I’m still going to go race when I want to go race. As far as the Cup series, it had no bearing on that.”

Stewart will continue in his role of helping run Stewart-Haas Racing, a company in which he purchased partial ownership in 2009. In 2017, Bowyer will join Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick and Danica Patrick on a four-car team that won Cup championships in 2011 (Stewart) and 2014 (Harvick).

Bowyer has won eight times in his career and is parting ways with Michael Waltrip Racing after this season. According to news reports, HScott Motorsports is expected to announce later this week that Bowyer will drive that team’s No. 51 Chevy for one season in 2016.

“Do you ever hear that term when you fall into a pile of cow manure and come out smelling like roses?” Bowyer said of his landing at SHR. “That’s exactly what this is for me.”

Stewart said that despite his winless streak, racing continues to be enjoyable. He said he made a promise to his father when he was 8 years old that he would never race if it wasn’t fun.

“It’s always fun,” Stewart said. “There’s been more challenges in the last couple years that have distracted from that a little bit, but it’s still fun. If it wasn’t fun, I would just walk away from it (now). I made my father that promise … and I’ve never forgotten that.”

That’s a main reason why Stewart said the decision to retire from Cup racing wasn’t easy. It forced him to look at where he is in his life and career and what he wants from the future.

“I’ve learned a lot about myself,” he said. “There’s a lot of personalities in my head I’ve had to talk to lately. It’s been like a chat room.

“You sit there and it changes. You run through the range of emotions. There’s days you’re like, ‘I can’t wait.’ Then there’s days that you battle back and forth. I’m not leaving the sport I love. I’m not walking away from something I’m passionate (about). I’m just changing roles. I’m not really retiring, I’m just changing positions.”

This story was originally published September 30, 2015 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Tony Stewart: ‘I’m not retiring from racing … just from the Cup series’."