Tony Stewart Chase Watch

Tony Stewart confronts heckler in grandstands at Chili Bowl

RELATED: Coverage of Stewart"s accident, comeback| Updated Chase Grid

TonyStewartreturned from a back injury in April and the three-time champion is in pursuit of one of the 16 spots in the Chase for the NASCARSprintCupin his final season. Here"s a look at where the driver of the No. 14 Chevrolet stands in his pursuit after the season"s 14thof 26 regular-season races.

WHAT JUST HAPPENEDStewart started Monday"s rain-postponed race in sixth, his best starting position of the season. And the No. 14 Chevrolet was firmly esconced in the top 10 until misfortune hit on Lap 92. Following a restart in which cars went up to five wide at PoconoRaceway, Stewart"s car got shuffled to the middle line and got loose, causing him to slow. Stewart-HaasRacing driver DanicaPatrick, who had reported brake issues all day, couldn"t get the No. 10 slowed down fast enough to avoid hitting Stewart from behind. Stewart spun.

Patrick and Stewart both took their cars to the garage eventually, and both returned to the race. Stewart re-entered the race in 38th place and finished 34th. Stewart entered the Pocono race 35th in the points standings and lost one place, finishing the day at 36th.

WHAT HE NEEDSStewart received a waiver from NASCAR for Chase eligibility. The surest way into the Chase is by winning before the end of regular season (at RichmondInternationalRacewayon Sept. 10) and climb into the top 30 in the points standings. En route to his 2015 championship,KyleBuschfaced a similar path after missing the first 11 races with a leg injury. Currently, Stewart is 36th in the standings, 71 points behind DavidRagan for 30th place.

WHAT"S NEXT"Smoke" heads to Michigan (June 12 at 1 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio), where he has one win in the Irish Hills, in his third race there in 2000. In his 32 starts there, he also has 12 top fives and 20 top-10 results.

RELATED: See all of Stewart"s wins | "Smoke" granted Chase waiver

Source: http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2016/6/6/tony-stewart-chase-for-the-nascar-sprint-cup-pocono-raceway-axalta-400.html

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Tony Stewart had plenty of one-liners in his post-race presser

Tony Stewart 1-on-1 with Kenny Wallace - "NASCAR RaceDay"

Tony Stewart toasts the victory lane revelers as he celebrates his first win since June 2, 2013.(Photo: Kyle Terada, USA TODAY Sports)

SONOMA, Calif. Tony Stewart was in a jubilant mood following his win Sunday at Sonoma Raceway, and it resulted in a wide-open and oft-hilarious post-race news conference.

Heres a sampling of some of the best moments:

--On how much he roughed up Denny Hamlin in the final turn: If it hadbeen a street fight, he"d have had two black eyes after that.

--On his enjoyment of Saturday nights fight in the Camping World Truck Series race involving John Wes Townley: I"m going to go to Zaxby"s and eat chicken all week just in support of John Wes. Hey, I"m all for it. I"m glad to see somebody had some emotion and actually did something with it. That made my whole day last night was watching the Truck race. I had no idea that John Wes Townley was going to make my top five hero list of all time. I"m following him on social media now.

--On future Stewart-Haas Racing driver Clint Bowyers electrical fire in the car: Glad he got out of that. It would be really hard to listen to him next year (does Bowyer impression). He"s hard enough to hear on the radio as it is because he"s ADD anyway. It takes five people, and it"s like every breath, somebody picks a different part of the sentence to understand. It"s like a game show. It"s like Clint Bowyer for $600, please!

--On social media critics: One thing that I did think about is in this day of social media where a lot of people are crickets. On social media, they sit there and chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp until they"ve got to be in front of you and then they don"t say a d**n word.

--On whether hes happy racing Sprint Cup cars: Today.Check with me. Most likely when Daytona starts on Friday, not so much. We all know how I feel about restrictor-plate racing.

--On NASCAR CEO Brian France: Brian France, I got in trouble -- well, I started to say I got in trouble once with Brian France. That"s a lie. I got in trouble a lot with Brian France.

--On how fans will remember Stewart and Jeff Gordon: Ten years down the road, the new people watching the sport are going to be like, Who are these old guys? I"m going to go, This is the guy who took me to the sand dunes and broke my back.

--On getting mad at other drivers: I can"t whip them all at once. I can take them one at a time. There"s a couple of them I might be able to take at the same time. You can pick which ones they are.

Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2016/06/26/tony-stewart-had-plenty-one-liners-his-post-race-presser/86417606/

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