After a three-week absence, Tony Stewart will be back behind the wheel of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet SS this weekend.
Stewart, the three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, will compete in Sunday night’s Oral-B USA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, his first race of any kind since being involved in a fatal accident at a sprint car race in Upstate New York Aug. 9. Stewart-Haas Racing made the announcement on Thursday.
Kevin Ward Jr., 20, died after he crashed during the race at Canandaigua (N.Y.) Motorsports Park. Ward was dueling with Stewart when he hit the wall, then got out of his car and walked towards Stewart’s car. It appeared that Ward was struck by the right-rear tire of Stewart’s car and thrown clear.
The Ontario County (N.Y.) coroner ruled that Ward died of blunt force trauma and a police investigation has been ongoing for the past two weeks.
A representative from the Ontario County Sheriff’s Office told FOXSports.com Thursday morning that no updates on the Ward investigation would be issued today.
Stewart was scheduled to compete in a Sprint Cup race Aug. 10 at Watkins Glen, but he pulled out of that event, as well as the next two races at Michigan International Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway. He comes into Sunday night’s race at Atlanta 26th in points, with a best finish this season of fourth, which he earned in the spring Bristol race.
Atlanta Motor Speedway is one of Stewart’s best tracks. In 25 starts at the 1.54-mile oval, Stewart has three victories, 10 top fives and 15 top 10s. Stewart’s average finish here of 11.654 is best in the Sprint Cup Series.
Even before the fatal accident, this has been a challenging season for Stewart, the co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing and driver of the No. 14 SHR.
Stewart suffered a double-compound fracture of his right leg in a sprint car crash in Iowa in August 2013. The injury kept him out of a race car until Daytona Speedweeks in February.
Although Stewart has been able to race since then, he has struggled to finish well consistently and on several occasions publicly said his injured leg was not fully healed. He was 19th in points prior to Watkins Glen, the first race he missed, and for the year, Stewart has just two top-five and six top-10 finishes in Sprint Cup 21 points races.
Stewart has not spoken publicly since the accident, but is expected to meet with the media Friday at AMS.