NASCAR Cup Series

Tony Stewart, Ty Dillon driver swap goes off in 77 seconds

Published May. 1, 2016 2:12 p.m. ET

foxsports

Tony Stewart went further than he planned to Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, but he was able to turn the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet over to Ty Dillon without incident.

Stewart started the GEICO 500 in the car with the idea of doing the driver swap on an early caution. But the track stayed green until Dale Earnhardt Jr. spun out at the exit to Turn2 on Lap 50.

When the yellow came out, Stewart was able to bring his car down pit road, and he and Dillon completed the driver change in 77 seconds.

Dillon rejoined the race in 34th place with a lot of time left in the race.

Understandably, Stewart was disappointed to have to get out of his car, but he couldn’t risk re-injuring the back he broke in an off-road accident in January.

“It sucks to be honest,” Stewart said after climbing out of his car. “I know why we got to do it, but it sucks. It still sucks that you have to do it but if I hadn't broke my back at the end of January; we wouldn't be in this situation.”

Stewart ran the entire race last week at Richmond International Raceway and expect to be in the car full-time going forward in this, his final season.

“Good news is this is last time we have to do it and I am back in next week,” said Stewart. “I really appreciate Ty (Dillon). He's been a rock star through this whole thing and especially this weekend. He's done all the heavy lifting and I just got in to ride around for 50 laps and turn it over to him.”

Stewart added that the driver swap went well.

“Fortunately we got the Lucky Dog and kept him on the lead lap," he said. "The change went pretty smooth -- no drama there so we got him so he could go out there and race now."