Somehow, someway, Tony Stewart has become relevant in NASCAR again. And it comes just in time for him to walk away from the sport. At least as a driver.
He's in the Chase for the first time since 2012, won a race for the first time since 2013 and more than doubled his top-10 finishes from last season. All that after missing the first eight races of the season.
Where did this Stewart come from?
Stewart hasn't finished better than 25th in the points since ending up ninth in 2012. Some blame can be put on his involvement with sprint car racing affecting his ability to race each week in NASCAR.
He missed 15 races in 2013 because of injuries sustained in a sprint car race and didn't compete in three Cup races in 2014 following another sprint car incident that ended with a death of a fellow driver.
But Stewart didn't finish 25th in points in 2014 because he missed three races. He just wasn't competitive.
Seven top 10s and three top 5s in 33 races isn't close to being the championship driver he was in 2011.
The irrelevance on the track continued last season when he didn't win a race for the second straight year and only finished in the top 10 three times. An average finish of 24.8 had him racing teammate Danica Patrick instead of battling for a championship like the other Stewart-Haas drivers Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch.
Thanks to some luck at Sonoma and a surprising resurgence by the three-time champion, Stewart will have a chance to add a fourth title in his final full year of racing. It's a chance to go out a champion.
Let's slam on the brakes for a second.
The string of five straight top 11 finishes following the July Daytona race came to a a halt at Bristol with a 21st place finish.
Then his engine overheated at Darlington and wrecked at Richmond for finishes of 35h and 33rd, respectively.
The aggressive, angry and don't mess with me attitude made an appearance the past two weeks with Stewart wrecking Brian Scott and former teammate Ryan Newman.
Newman referenced Stewart's sprint car incidents following their run in last week. Stewart basically shook it off as a non-issue.
It's time for the Chase now. It's a whole different mindset and a whole different approach each week," Stewart said Thursday. "We've got to go out and worry about what we need to do to win a championship, not worry about the other stuff."
He'll rethink that when he needs to pass Scott or Newman when he's on the bubble of being eliminated from the Chase.
Newman has a reputation of being difficult to pass anyway. He doesn't need a reason to bump you out of the way on top of that. Stewart gave him a reason.
So the storyline isn't Stewart trying to win his fourth championship, it's whether him and Newman will meet again on the track in the next 10 weeks and what will occur if that happens.
We'll all be waiting for Stewart vs. Newman part two.