WATCH: When Tony Stewart Barged his Way to Victory at Sonoma Back in 2016

2016 proved to be the final year for Tony Stewart and a few other drivers. Needless to say, the 3-time Cup Series champion wanted to go out with a bang. During the 2016 Toyota/Save Mart 350 at the Sonoma Raceway in California, he did just that. However, Denny Hamlin was not particularly impressed with his stunts in the latter stages of the race.

In the final lap of the race, Stewart was forced to defend. Denny Hamlin managed to squeeze past the #14 car to take the lead, but Stewart was not finished yet. At the final corner, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver dived down the inside of the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.

As they exited the corner, the two of them bumped into each other, and Hamlin got sent sliding into the wall. In the end, Stewart reached the chequered flag unchallenged while Hamlin recovered to finish 2nd. Meanwhile, Joey Logano completed the Top 3 for Team Penske.

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How did Tony Stewart perform in the race?

Admittedly, Stewart did not perform particularly well in practice and he qualified on the tail end of the Top 10. In other words, even though he had a chance to win, that chance looked slim. Meanwhile, Carl Edwards and AJ Allmendinger shared the front row ahead of Martin Truex Jr, and Stewart found himself sharing the fifth row with Paul Menard.

Nevertheless, Stewart rallied forth and fought his way up the order to take the win. Hamlin definitely tried his hardest, but he came up short. He clearly could not hold his own against the brute force attack from Tony Stewart. Regardless, it would be Stewart’s last ever win in NASCAR Cup Series before he retired. Now, he is focusing on his new racing series, the Superstar Racing Experience.

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