Unlike some other drivers, Tony Stewart actually has said he’s retired, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t see him back in a NASCAR car next year.
It’s not uncommon for NASCAR team owners to bring in road course specialists for Cup Series or XFINITY Series races. It’s just not most of them who have the option of bringing themselves in as ringers, though Tony Stewart is one who does.
He might even be thinking about exercising that option next season. It all came about during the press conference to introduce Aric Almirola as the newest Stewart-Haas Racing driver.
As reported by NBC Sports, Almirola half-jokingly asked Stewart about whether he would get any seat time in XFINITY Series races next season, which led to the following comments from Smoke:
"“We’ll work on that. I might want to drive it at some point. You guys act like you don’t need something that’s shocking a little bit. There’s actually some road-course races that I might be interested in running. We actually discussed it in house here.“We don’t have anything near worth announcing by any means, but there are some really cool races, especially Charlotte having a road course race next year, there might be some opportunities that might be a little fun for me to come out, dust things off a little bit.”"
He later clarified that getting behind the wheel in 2018 “wasn’t likely” but was okay with the media saying it was something that interested him. NBC Sports also noted that there are four road course races on the XFINITY Series slate next year, including the “Roval” at Charlotte that Stewart referenced.
Stewart-Haas has run just one car in the XFINITY Series in 2017, the No. 00 driven by Cole Custer. However, Kevin Harvick drove the No. 41 in six races, so there’s precedent for the team to run an additional car when circumstances dictate.
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In 2018, SHR is teaming up with Biagi-DenBeste in the junior series and will likely use the No. 98 for Harvick. Could Stewart hop in that car for some road course races? It seems more likely than it did before today, though not enough that fans should start making plans to see Smoke back in NASCAR action just yet.