NASCAR: Tony Stewart replacement confirmed for COTA
By Asher Fair
Tony Stewart won’t be back in the Fox broadcast booth for Sunday afternoon’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas.
Tony Stewart has already been in the Fox broadcast booth for four races during the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, including the Busch Light Clash preseason exhibition race at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
He joined the full-time duo of lead announcer Mike Joy and analyst Clint Bowyer again at Daytona International Speedway and Auto Club Speedway for the season’s first two points races, and he returned to the booth this past Sunday for the season’s fifth race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Danica Patrick was in the booth for the season’s third and fourth races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway, respectively.
But neither Tony Stewart nor Danica Patrick will be in the booth for this coming Sunday afternoon’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas.
Two guest analysts, not the usual one, have been named to replace Stewart for Sunday’s 68-lap EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at the 20-turn, 3.426-mile (5.514-kilometer) Austin, Texas road course.
2004 Cup Series champion Kurt Busch and Haas Formula 1 team principal Guenther Steiner are set to join Joy and Bowyer on Sunday.
Busch competed in the first two Cup Series races at Circuit of the Americas, as the track was only added to the Cup Series schedule in 2021. He remains part of the 23XI Racing organization after being forced to end his full-time driving career early as a result of a head injury he suffered in a single-car crash at Pocono Raceway last July.
As for Steiner, Circuit of the Americas has been on the Formula 1 schedule every year since 2012 (aside from its 2020 cancellation). He has been the team principal of the sport’s lone American team since they entered the sport in 2016.
While Stewart won’t be in the booth on Sunday, he is, however, set to return in the near future. He is set to be back for the dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Easter Sunday, April 9, plus the race at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, April 23 and the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 28.
Aside from these three races, nobody has been confirmed by Fox beyond this Sunday’s race at Circuit of the Americas.
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Tune in to Fox at 3:30 p.m. ET this Sunday afternoon for the live broadcast of the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix from Circuit of the Americas. Start a free trial of FuboTV if you haven’t already done so!