Stewart all smiles after final career Sprint Cup race

Tony Stewart's Sprint Cup career didn't finish how he hoped it would, but the NASCAR veteran is still content with the end result.

The three-time champion was eliminated from this season's Chase in the round of 16, and he could only muster a 22nd-place finish Sunday at the Ford EcoBoost 400, but with his career now coming to a close, Stewart could only smile at the sendoff.

"It is still hard to digest it all right now," Stewart said after the race, according to ESPN's Bob Pockrass. "The whole day was awesome. You couldn't ask for it to be a better day. ... Probably the best part was your peers and fellow drivers and crew chiefs and crew members.

"Coming down pit road and high-fiving all those guys, it made me think back to when Dale Sr. won the Daytona 500. It was just an awesome moment."

The 45-year-old has competed in 618 Sprint Cup races throughout his 18-year career, beginning with the Daytona 500 in 1999. After three championships in 2002, 2005, and 2011, it's as good a time as ever for Stewart to call it quits from NASCAR's premiere competition.

"I'm proud," Stewart said, according to Pockrass. "It's been an awesome 21 years racing in NASCAR in the Xfinity Series and the Cup Series. ... I said all year I just wanted to be one of the guys racing and to be put out there (on that pace lap), it's an honor, but it's humbling at the same time."