What The Heck Happened To Tony Stewart At Bristol?

Tony Stewart sat on a couple tires, listening to acting Stewart-Haas competition director Matt Borland while blankly staring toward his car.

After a dismal qualifying effort, Stewart had told the Bristol Motor Speedway fans before Saturday night’s race that he didn’t plan on staying at the back toward long.

But unfortunately for Stewart and his Chase hopes, that never happened. Stewart ran toward the rear all night and finished 28th, three laps behind the leaders.

The good news was that, thanks to a bad night from Clint Bowyer, Stewart remained 10th in the point standings, 21 points ahead of 11th-place Brad Keselowski.

But Stewart doesn’t look anything like a championship contender. He said teammate Ryan Newman’s setup helped make it “better than it was shaping up to be yesterday,” but it still wasn’t good.

“Just a rough night,” he said. “Struggled through it.”

After last week’s race at Michigan, Stewart said his team didn’t deserve to make the Chase. He said before the Bristol race that he wanted to make it for the company and his sponsors, but wasn’t feeling optimistic afterward.

“It’s no different than last week,” he said. “The feeling is the same way – you still want to make it. We’re working hard at it.”