Tony Stewart Advances Six Positions During Jackson Motorplex Visit Friday

Story By: TYLER ALTMEYER / TONY STEWART RACING – BROWNSBURG, IN – For the first time since March 7, ‘Smoke’ Tony Stewart returned to the captain’s chair of his familiar No. 14 winged sprint car and joined a loaded field of nearly 60 entries for Jackson Motorplex’s Great Lakes Shootout on Friday and Saturday, May 15-16.

Although Saturday’s finale was eventually cancelled due to wet weather, the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion made the most of this Friday night start at the state-of-the-art facility, ultimately qualifying for the 25-lap, $5,000-to-win showstopper.

Forced to do things the hard way, Stewart, driver of the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing/Rush Truck Centers/Advance Auto Parts/Mobil 1/Ford Performance/Curb Records/Sage Fruit/FloRacing/Carquest/TechNet Professional Automotive Service/Hunt Brothers Pizza/Absolute Automation & Security/Digital Ally/No. 14 sprint car, earned his way onto the A-main grid by finishing third during the first of two consolation B-mains. From there, Stewart advanced from 23rd to finish 17th at the end of 25 circuits.

“It feels good to be back in a sprint car,” Tony Stewart said, a ten-time sprint car winner in 2019. “The last thing you want to do at one of these races and leave yourself in a hole because it’s tough to get back out. Lucky for me, I have a team that never stops working to improve. We were able to recover out of the B-main and turn some solid laps in the feature.”

Although a sound recovery, Smoke’s Jackson Motorplex finish snapped a six-race top-ten streak that has been accumulating since action in the Sunshine State in February. To date, Stewart owns five top-five finishes and six top-ten finishes in seven starts.

Tony Stewart and Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing are unsure of future plans. Fans are encouraged to stay alert via social media for any breaking news pertaining to the team and their event schedule.