Tony Stewart Lets Slip Truth Behind Snubbing Sonoma as He Discloses His Favorite NASCAR Track

NASCAR legend Tony Stewart has to be one of the most versatile drivers ever to run the tracks. He’s literally done it all, be it Sprint cars, IndyCar, and NASCAR, and now he even competes in the NHRA races. The owner/driver in his NASCAR Cup Series career has won 49 races and bagged a total of four Cup Championships so far, twice as a driver (2002, 2005), once as a driver/owner (2011), and once only as an owner in 2014 when Kevin Harvick won it for Stewart Haas Racing.

Stewart made 618 Cup Series starts between 1999 and 2016, during which time he found success on almost all the tracks. Out of the 24 on the NASCAR lineup back then, there were only three (Darlington Raceway, Kentucky Speedway, and Rockingham Speedway) that he never won. Owing to this, it must be tough for the veteran to pick favorites. However, recently, the Indiana native chose his favorite track as he reminisced about the old days.

Tony Stewart’s favorite tracks

‘Smoke’ in his entire Cup career found the most success in Indianapolis, where in the 18 races, he boasts an average finish of 9.7. He won on the track twice and has on seven occasions finished in the top 5. However, the winningest track in his decade-and-a-half career has been Watkins Glen, where he got 5 wins in 16 races with an impeccable average finish of 9.9. However, none of these tracks make it to his top two in the Cup.

Stewart was recently on the Adam Carolla Show, where he dwelled upon his favorite track. He said, “Richmond was my favorite track and I think that’s partially because that’s where I won my first NASCAR Cup race.” In September 1999, Stewart won his first Cup Series race at Richmond, when he held off Bobby Labonte, who was in his top form that year. This race showed signs of a star in the making. Richmond was kind to Stewart throughout his career; in the 35 races that he ran on the track, he bagged 3 wins, 11 top-5s, 19 top-10s, and had an average finish of 13.4.

However, his final Cup Series race on the track wasn’t one to remember. After his crash with Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart finished the 2016 regular-season finale in the 33rd position. Despite that, and despite missing 8 races that year due to an injury, Stewart made it to the playoffs in his final season. All thanks to his win at the Sonoma Raceway that year, the last one in his Cup career. That is perhaps the reason why it is his second favorite track. “Sonoma was always number two. I always loved going to the Sonoma race,” Stewart added.

Other than it being his last Cup win, Stewart won thrice on the track in the 18 races, with 6 top 5s, 10 top 10s, and an average finish of 11.8. But that is not the only reason behind his loving Sonoma. It was the vibe of the wine country and probably the most picturesque track in the Cup lineup. Sonoma is usually regarded as a picnic for Cup teams and their families. Or like how Clint Bowyer in the past had said, “It’s almost like vacation. It really is for the wives, the girlfriends — they all go on wine tours. It’s a fun weekend for everyone in the garage area.” 

Stewart, on the same note, said, “A lot of the crew chiefs and the owners their wives came with them. And drivers finally were going to get some good food, so Sunday at the end of the race you’d see all these crates going into the race trailers. After they got the race cars packed they’re carting all this wine back…so that was it was always a big event for everybody.” All the wine aside, Stewart probably also enjoyed Sonoma because of its complexities.

Tony Stewart calls Sonoma a technical race

“Sonoma was my second favorite track of all of them that we ran on the Cup,” he said. Because it is so technical, and we know Tony Stewart enjoys a challenge.

“Yes exactly. yeah, and there’s no you don’t get but twice during the lap where you’re physically not doing something so you only and it’s for a second or second and a half at a time that you physically get to just let your muscles relax for a second then right back at the job so I always liked it.”

This is because the 2.52-mile road course is an elevated hilly track with a great deal of elevation. Even the car had to be specifically tuned to run on this particular track. Stewart, in the conversation, dwelled upon how the car had to be set up differently for Sonoma than the Ovals.

He said, “It’s all left side weight percentage you change geometry on the front suspension. The rear suspension really didn’t change much cause back in that day when I was running still had I-beam suspension in the back like truck arm suspension right? But yeah you had to definitely set them up drastically different than what you did for the ovals.”

Since 2016, it was only in 2024 that Stewart came back to Sonoma for his NHRA’s Top Fuel division. The wine country would have definitely taken the veteran down memory lane. What are some of your favorite races of Tony Stewart from Richmond or Sonoma?