Tony Stewart Reportedly to Retire After 2016 Season: Latest Details and Reaction

Tony Stewart will announce he’s retiring following the 2016 season at a news conference Wednesday, The Associated Press has learned. Bowyer “will be released from his contract with Michael Waltrip Racing at season’s end”, according to Utter.

Stewart’s public relations representatives on Sunday declined an opportunity to comment.

Three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart is expected to announce his retirement this week and be replaced in his No. 14 Chevy next season by Clint Bowyer, a source confirmed to the Observer.

Motorsport.com reported in August that the team was close to resigning Allgaier for the 2016 season.

Stewart, 44, who won Cup championships in 2002, ’05 and ’11, has 48 victories at NASCAR’s highest level. Stewart told AP in June that his confidence was shot and he was struggling to find any enjoyment in being in the race vehicle.

Dustin Long of NBC Sports highlighted the ups and downs of Stewart’s recent career and pointed out that the racer missed 15 starts in 2013 with a broken right leg. He then “missed three races past year after he was involved in a sprint auto accident that killed Kevin Ward Jr”.

The three-time NASCAR champion will call it a career after next season.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be the same from what happened the last two years”, Stewart said during an appearance at Texas Motor Speedway this summer.

Stewart’s driving career is without question Hall of Fame material.

Stewart is one of the most highly respected drivers among the fraternity of NASCAR. Bowyer has been looking for a one-year deal for next season as a stopgap while Stewart runs his 18th and final Cup season.

Stewart has admittedly not been the same person he was before the incidents of the past two years.

Although cleared of any charges by a New York grand jury following the tragedy, a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Ward’s family is yet to be heard.