Stewart to retire after 2016 season

UNB! NETWORK STAFF REPORT

Tony Stewart, driver of the #14 Mobil 1 / Bass Pro Shops
Chevrolet, races during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
myAFibRisk.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on
September 20, 2015 in Joliet, Illinois.

(PHOTO: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images North America)

Tony Stewart, a three-time Sprint Cup Series champion, plans to retire after the 2016 season, team and industry sources told ESPN's Marty Smith. Mired in one of the worst seasons of his career at 25th in the standings, Stewart will run one final season before handing over the driving duties of the Stewart-Haas Racing #14 Chevy to Clint Bowyer, sources said. Clint Bowyer is driving for Michael Waltrip Racing in 2015, but that team is closing operations after this season. He does not currently have a ride for 2016.

Stewart won the Sprint Cup in 2002, 2005 and 2011. He missed out on the Chase for the Sprint Cup this year after posting zero wins and two top-10s leading up to the Chase. The 45-year-old Stewart is tied for 13th in career victories with 48. Stewart, who has 582 career Cup starts, missed the final 15 races of the 2013 season with a broken leg suffered in a sprint car accident. He missed three races last season after the sprint car he was racing struck and killed 20-year-old Kevin Ward Jr., who had approached Stewart's car on foot at Canandaigua Motorsports Park.

Stewart-Haas Racing has scheduled a news conference for 1:00pm/et on Wednesday at the team's Kannapolis, N.C., headquarters, at which time driver and team co-owner Tony Stewart is expected to announce that 2016 will his last season behind the wheel. Gene Haas, Stewart's partner, will attend the news conference, the team confirmed.