Stewart Spills the Beans on Possible Xfinity Series Return

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor

It’s been well known that Tony Stewart has enjoyed his retirement from driving in the Cup Series this year as he’s been able to go and do the things he never had time to do while he was a full-time driver, but in Wednesday’s press conference announcing Aric Almirola would take over the No. 10 car at Stewart-Haas Racing in 2018, Stewart let it slip that his driving days in NASCAR might not be over yet.

Almirola was asked about running in the Xfinity Series next year with SHR’s new partnership with Biagi-Denbeste Racing and replied by saying “I hope so.  Can I drive an XFINITY car?” Stewart then interjected to announce his desire to possibly take the car for a spin himself at some of the road course races in the Xfinity Series.

“We’ll work on that,” Stewart said. “I might want to drive it at some point even.  You guys act like you don’t need something shocking today to write.  There are actually some road course races that I might be interested in running.

“We’ve actually discussed it in-house here, but 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.  I mean, there might be some opportunities that might be a little bit fun for me to come out and dust things off a little bit.”

Starting next year, the Xfinity Series will have four road courses on the schedule, including Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio, Road America, and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course.

Stewart noted later that his desire to get back in a NASCAR stock car would have to wait until at least 2019 and he wouldn’t be able to run some tracks because of his sprint car schedule.

Of his 49 career wins in the Cup Series, seven of them have come on road courses. He also has 11 career wins in the Xfinity Series in 94 starts.