NASCAR: Stewart hands car off to Dillon

Adhering to a plan laid out over two weeks ago before his return at Richmond, Tony Stewart completed just 52 laps on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway before loaning his Chevrolet to substitute driver Ty Dillon.

Dillon completed the rest of the race for Stewart and wound up sixth, a big accomplishment considering there were multiple multi-car wrecks.

NASCAR rules dictate that a starting driver will receive points and earnings from an event, thus making Stewart Chase-eligible with a Dillon victory.

"It sucks to be honest," Stewart said after getting out of the car. "I know why we got to do it, but it sucks. It still sucks that you have to do it but if I hadn't broke my back at the end of January, we wouldn't be in this situation.

The swap occurred during a caution in which Stewart had just earned the free pass back on the lead lap. It took only 77 seconds for Stewart and Dillon to switch places and the No. 14 remained on the lead lap.

"The good news is this is last time we have to do it and I am back in next week," Stewart said. "I really appreciate Ty. He's been a rock star through this whole thing and especially this weekend. He's done all the heavy lifting and I just got in to ride around for 50 laps and turn it over to him. Fortunately we got the Lucky Dog and kept him on the lead lap. The change went pretty smooth; no drama there so we got him so he could go out there and race now."

Dillon practiced and qualified the car so Stewart was forced to start the race from the tail-end of the field as a result.

Stewart suffered a burst L1 vertebrae fracture while racing off-road vehicles in January and missed the first eight races of the season. Stewart agreed to only start the race at Talladega as a condition of returning last weekend at Richmond.