Trying to recapture his edge in Sprint Cup competition, Tony Stewart has decided to return to dirt-track racing.
Sort of.
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Beyondtheflag.com has reported that Stewart will travel to Salisbury, North Carolina later this month for a series of races at Millbridge Speedway. However, Stewart will not compete as a driver in the micro sprint car races.
His NASCAR crew chief, Chad Johnston, will compete in the events, and Stewart will serve as Johnston's crew chief.
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Stewart has not competed in a dirt-track event since his involvement in the tragic death of 20-year-old Kevin Ward Jr. in Canandaigua, New York last August. Stewart inadvertently hit and killed Ward and had to take a three-week hiatus from racing all together.
Stewart, Sprint Cup Series champion in 2005 and 2011, failed to win a race in a season for the first time in his NASCAR career in 2014.
His struggles, which really began when he broke his leg in a dirt-track race in August of 2013, have continued in 2015. In seven starts this season on NASCAR's top circuit, Stewart has zero Top-10 finishes and two races in which he did not finish.
Beyondtheflag.com added that Stewart has often said that his dirt-track appearances helped his NASCAR racing because the smaller races allowed him to blow off steam and decompress.
"Stewart will get his grassroots racing relaxation from a crew chief standpoint and what better crew chief could Johnston have than one who knows his way around a dirt track in a sprint car. He can get an appreciation of Johnston's day job over the course of the races. Johnston will get to drive and work more with Stewart and build their relationship even further. The micro sprint racing will serve to further bond the driver and crew chief pairing and give them a unique perspective into each other's personalities and abilities beyond their roles in NASCAR. This can only serve to enhance their racing relationship and hopefully their performance in the cup car."
Stewart helped as part of the track crew at an event earlier, but whether he can get behind the wheel remains a big question mark.
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