NASCAR Cup Series

The perfect positive storm for Tony Stewart

Published Jun. 27, 2016 10:55 a.m. ET

foxsports

There's always been an ongoing debate inside our sport and honestly within my own mind about whether we need to have more road course races and/or even a road course race in the Chase. After what we saw Sunday the answer is simply yes. Road racing is always one of the more fun events.

I know for myself and the rest of our FOX NASCAR team we were absolutely thrilled to get the Sonoma race back in our portion of the broadcast season.

Sunday was one of those races that you could never take your eye off what was going on. I had my hands full Sunday simply trying to keep up with and anticipate all the different strategies these teams were attempting.

On Sunday we saw a lot of drivers get up there and look like they were going to dominate. At one point it looked like no one was going to beat Carl Edwards. Then there for a while it looked like it was A.J. Allmendingers day. Then it was Denny Hamlin.

Of course the obvious story of the weekend was Tony Stewart and how he had the perfect storm in a positive way. Their car really wasn't that good most of the day and really I have to believe that last pit stop was unscheduled, but then lo' and behold a half-lap after he pits the caution comes out. Everyone else then pitted but Tony had the lead.

I have to say Tony's win Sunday was one of the more popular wins in our sport in quite a while. Ironically this is the second consecutive year that a driver has gotten his first win of the season at Sonoma after coming back from an injury. Naturally last year it was Kyle Busch winning after recovering from his leg injuries suffered in February 2015 and now here was Tony winning after recovering from his back injury.

So this was a very popular win across the board. This was the first time Tony has won in three years. He now has punched his ticket into his last Chase as he retires at the end of the season. What that man has been through professionally and personally these last couple years, you would be hard pressed to find anyone who wasn't thrilled for Tony.

I mean heck, the guy he was just beating and banging with going through the last corner on the last lap to the checkers came to Tony's window to congratulate him before Tony could even get to Victory Lane. That speaks volumes right there.

I also just can't believe that another FOX NASCAR season has come to a close. It just seems like yesterday that we were all starting on this journey back in 2001 at Daytona yet here we are closing out our sixteenth season. Sure over time there has been additions and subtractions on our NASCAR FOX team but really the core group both in front of and behind the camera are still here.

It's always bitter-sweet when we get to this point of the season. To be fair, I know we all look forward to a little breather but it seems like when you jump on social media the fans wish the same thing we do, that our FOX NASCAR team had more races to broadcast.