Tony Stewart 2016 Preview
By Richard Tix
I think many, myself included, thought Tony Stewart would at least start climbing his way back to his old self in 2015. That never did happen. In fact, Smoke finished 28th in points which was just one spot better then the 29th he finished in 2013 when he only ran 21 of 36 races.
Not once in 2015 did Stewart finish in the top 5 and only three times did he finish in the top 10. That is a sad season for a once dominate champion of the sport. Things have spiraled out of control for Smoke and during the 2015 season he announced that 2016 would be his last season at the Cup level.
Since 2013, he has been sitting at 48 wins and part of me has felt like I jinxed him. In 2014 and 2015 I wrote a predictions question of "When will Tony Stewart get to 50 wins?" It seemed all but a wrap that he would be the next driver to hit the vaulted number 50, but with just one season left and a huge hole to work his way out of, will it happen?
Bold Predictions/2016 Season Expectations:
- I want to write that he will get multiple wins, which will get him to 50 career wins, and have one last shot in the Chase, but its hard to be that optimistic. The best I see happening in 2016 is a possible Chase birth. Anything can happen with the Chase now, and he did run well at times on short tracks such as Bristol and Martinsville, so maybe he can squeak out a win somewhere? Past that, I do not have a ton of confidence in his final season (though I hope I am wrong because I would love to see him go out running well). 2-3 top 5's and 3-6 top 10's is all I see. If I am right, I hope we can remember him for all those fantastic seasons he had in his dominate days.
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