Tony Stewart back to winning in classic style at Sonoma

After Tony Stewart retires from driving, will there be any Sprint Cup drivers left who can intimidate their peers simply by reputation for cussedness?

Stewart says when he usually finishes a race at the Sonoma Raceway, where he was the winner on Sunday, he's ready to fight at least five guys at the helipad en route to the airport. This time he got his frustration out of his system early by body-slamming the Toyota of Denny Hamlin as he took the lead exiting the final corner on the way to victory.

It was Stewart who was worried about retaliation from Hamlin once the race was over.

"I didn't slow down right away because I'm like, 'The faster I go, the less of a running start he's going to have to plow into me,'" Stewart said. "But he pulled up, he saw me and thumbs up, and I'm like, 'Great, I didn't want to have to fight today.'"

In the end, it was a classic victory by NASCAR's most tempestuous driver -- and possibly the last we'll see. A three-time champion, Stewart's had tough times in the past three seasons with injuries and legal troubles before announcing his retirement at the end of 2016.

It's now a storybook season for Stewart, who is almost certain to make the Chase after his first victory in nearly three years.

"I'll be all right if this is the last place I win one," Stewart said in the post-race media conference. "I'm going for more, just for the record.

"I don't lay down for anything. All you've got to do is just give me that little bit of hope, and I'll run with it."

Beyond the slam-bang drama of the finish, it's likely that this win by Stewart drew more praise from more quarters than any other -- witness the thumbs up from his former teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing who almost ended up in the wall.

It generally holds true that when a great driver retires, even those who don't like him give him his due as a pillar of the sport -- except, of course, the negativists who hide behind the anonymity of twitterdom.

It is appropriate to refer to Stewart as an icon. The word is derived from iconoclast, which once described cultural protesters. Stewart has been protesting his entire career, often against NASCAR as well as fellow drivers, promoters and journalists.

One thing has always been accurate about Stewart: If you put a move on him he doesn't think is kosher, you will hear about it, often in the form of a crunched fender or bumper.

So when Hamlin made his bid to get by Stewart on the last lap at Turn 7 and hit his Chevy after wheel-hopping under braking, it was understood Stewart would be doing some sheet metal work of his own on Hamlin's Toyota in Turn 11.

"They drove it hard in the last few turns, and Denny Hamlin came out ahead, " said Gene Haas, co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing. "In true Tony Stewart fashion, he -- you just know when he came into Turn 11 he wasn't going to use his brakes. Whatever was in front of him was going to either get punted off the track or run over or whatever. That was going to be his bumper stop."

Hamlin anticipated the contact that didn't come -- he was so worried about looking for Stewart in his rear view mirror that he overlooked Turn 11 and slid wide. That enabled Stewart to pull alongside for the body slam that put him into the lead and ended any chances for Hamlin.

Hamlin was philosophical after the race.

"He was doing what he had to do and we did what we had to do in Turn 7," Hamlin said. "All's fair in love and war."

Stewart may have been lucky to get the lead on an early pit stop called by crew chief Mike Bugarewicz just before a caution fell. But once in the front he was masterful.

There was "a little bit of strategy there I think on Tony's part to know he has to maintain that lead and also make the competitors behind him use up their tires trying to catch him," Haas said. "If you watch him carefully, you could see how he goes into the turns, kind of gives them a little bit of room and then moves out in front of them and basically makes them use up their tires, and that really worked well."

It was Martin Truex Jr. who got loose on worn tires behind him first, and then Hamlin had a go. Though Stewart ended up on worn tires himself and wheel-hopped his own car when Hamlin got by him, he had enough traction left in his Goodyears to close the deal on his 49th career victory.

As the co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, Stewart is doing his best to celebrate a final season behind the wheel. In addition to setting up his car for races and calling the strategy from atop the pit box, Bugarewicz is in charge of reminding his driver to have fun.

"That's the last thing I say to him before I leave the car and he actually reminded me of that today," said Bugarewicz, who was celebrating his first victory as a Sprint Cup crew chief. "He said, 'If I get angry and start yelling at you today, just remind me to have fun.' I said, 'Yeah, know how that'll work out for me.' But no, we always talk about that. What's most important for all of us is just enjoy it, take it in. You have to do that."

When Stewart ended up at the front of the field under yellow, Bugarewicz asked by radio if he was having fun? "Well, I'm not (p-----) off at anybody," said Stewart, who later observed that the road coarse race featured some unusually good driving this year versus some of the over-aggressive maneuvers often seen on the highly technical circuit.

Ultimately, there's only one way for a guy like Stewart, who takes losing personally more than almost any of his peers, to really have fun. That's to win.

In general, Stewart's difficulties with the sanctioning body, other drivers, promoters and journalists results from hypersensitivity to his own concerns, i.e. Stewart often tends to take everything personally. That's one reason why there hasn't been much fun in his career since the death of Kevin Ward Jr., the young driver who stepped in front of Stewart's sprint car on an August night in New York in 2014.

Stewart was not able to evade Ward when the driver inexplicably stepped in front of his car. After a long investigation and no criminal charges were filed, the driver's family filed a wrongful death civil suit.

The family may not have been able to let go of the tragic loss of a son, but now at least Stewart has been able to move on with his career.

That moving on will include this year's Chase if Stewart closes what is now a nine-point gap between him and the Top 30 in points. As it is, Stewart has at least four more legitimate shots at winning races -- the two restrictor plate events at the Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, plus the road course race at Watkins Glen, N.Y. The Sprint Cup will return to the Pocono International Raceway later this summer as well, where Stewart was competitive earlier this month.

Winning additional races between now and September means all-important bonus points for advancing past the pressure-laden first round of the Chase.

Just as when he was at the front of the field at Sonoma, Stewart is not going to give up the opportunity for a career-closing championship easily. At this point, he has hope and he can be counted on to run with it.