NASCAR: Tony Stewart replacement confirmed for Dover
By Asher Fair
Tony Stewart won’t be in the booth for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway, with Rusty Wallace set to join.
Tony Stewart made his sixth appearance in the Fox Sports broadcast booth of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season during Sunday afternoon’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, joining lead announcer Mike Joy and analyst Clint Bowyer.
He also joined the full-time duo at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Daytona International Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, and Bristol Motor Speedway earlier this year.
But the three-time Cup Series champion will not be in the booth for this coming Sunday afternoon’s Wurth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway.
Set to join Joy and Bowyer for this race is 1989 NASCAR Cup Series champion Rusty Wallace.
Wallace’s appearance in the booth during this 400-lap race around the four-turn, 1-mile (1.609-kilometer) Dover, Delaware oval is set to make him the eighth different individual to call a race in the booth with the full-time announcers this season.
In addition to Stewart, the others to join the duo so far this season include Danica Patrick, Kurt Busch, Guenther Steiner, Chase Elliott (remotely), Larry McReynolds, and Bobby Labonte.
Fox has taken the same approach this season that they took last season after Jeff Gordon left following a six-year run to focus on his then-new role as Vice Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports.
Instead of hiring a third full-time analyst, or just sticking with two announcers like they did with Joy and Gordon after Darrell Waltrip retired post-2019 (when Bowyer was still driving), they have brought in a number of guest analysts to fill that third seat from week to week.
That is set to change in 2024, as Kevin Harvick is set to join the team full-time after retiring from full-time Cup Series competition. Harvick, who owns the all-time record for the most starts across NASCAR’s top three series, made his 800th career Cup Series start on Sunday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway, making him the 10th driver to hit that milestone.
All-time NASCAR Cup Series wins list. dark. Next
Tune in to Fox Sports 1 at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 30 for the live broadcast of the Wurth 400 from Dover Motor Speedway. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don’t miss it!