NASCAR: The Five Worst Wrecks Of Tony Stewart’s Career

No. 4 – Sonoma (2011)

Payback At Sonoma

If there is one thing that has plagued Tony Stewart throughout his 17-year career in the Sprint Cup Series, it would have to be his aggressive tendencies on the track and how it caused others to race him at times. That seemed to be his undoing during the 2011 summer race at Sonoma, as he was ruthlessly tagged from behind by an angry and vengeful Brian Vickers.

Vickers targeted Stewart for revenge after smoke gave him a hard shove in the bumper and caused him to spin into a stack of tires. Vickers later returned the favor by giving Stewart a little shove through the same turn, ultimately resulting in the tail end of Stewart’s car getting caught on a stack of tires.

Although many may have thought the payback to Tony Stewart would have humbled him a bit, he later stated in an interview that he would continue to dump people that blocked him on the track. The situation was made worse when he admitted that he would even dump his Stewart Haas Racing teammate, Ryan Newman, if he were to throw a block on Stewart at any point during a race.

With that being said, it’s pretty safe to say that Stewart didn’t learn his lesson about aggression during this incident, or any other throughout his career. Fortunately for Stewart, he has three championships to prove that his aggressive tendencies do often times work to his advantage.

Next: Bunching up the field.