NASCAR: Stewart says farewell with twin burnout

Tony Stewart added another memorable moment to his final NASCAR Sprint Cup season on Sunday as Bristol winner Kevin Harvick invited his friend and boss to celebrate with him on the frontstretch.

But truthfully, it wasn't so much of an invitation as a demand, as Harvick actually tried to get Stewart to climb into the No. 4 on the frontstretch and ride with him into Victory Lane.

"Tony and I aren't very good at sign language between each other from one seat to the other, and it evolved into the burnouts, which was pretty cool," Harvick said. "But yeah, that was pretty neat to be able to win a race and convince him to actually come out on the front straightaway and do a burnout.

"And he actually did it. That was just neat. Hopefully that was pretty cool for the fans, and to see him happy and smiling and having fun and doing the burnout was pretty cool."

Bristol has long been a favorite track of Stewart's for both the racing product and the rabid traditional fan base. He captured his second pole at the venue back in 1999 and won the 2001 night race.

He jokingly agreed with Harvick that the two could work on their nonverbal communication skills moving forward.

"The funny part is he got out of his car, got the flag and then he goes 'get in my car and go to Victory Lane with me,'" Stewart said. "I was like, 'What?' He goes 'yeah, just leave yours here.' I'm like I just can't just leave my car here, but that was cool."

Harvick had wanted to do something like this with Stewart all season, but hadn't won after the three-time champion returned from his off-season back injury.

"When they were stopping to check all the lug nuts on the back straightaway, I decided that I was not leaving the side of that 14 car. He was not going to get out of doing something after we won. He was going to participate in some way, shape or form, even if I had to pull him out of the car."

Stewart previously shared a final celebratory cooldown lap with Jeff Gordon last month at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.