Tony Stewart knows the time is right to retire

Calling it simply changing positions within Stewart-Haas Racing and not reflective of his current on-track struggles, Tony Stewart formally announced that the 2016 season will be his last as a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Wednesday afternoon.

Often retirement news conferences are somber affairs, not so with Stewart who throughout the nearly one-hour long event joked, laughed and didn't at all look like someone who hasn't won a NASCAR race in over two-plus years and recently dealt with injury and his involvement in the death of another driver.

"It was a choice that was 100-percent mine," Stewart said. "There wasn't any pressure from anybody, if anything it was the opposite. I had more people trying to talk me out of it than anything. I think it's a scenario where everybody in their career at some point makes the decision that it's time for a change and it's nothing that you plan.

"I think deep down you know when it's time to do something to make a change like this."

The co-owner of SHR along with Gene Haas, Stewart will continue to be heavily involved with the team that also fields cars for defending Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch and Danica Patrick. Stewart contributed heavily to the growth of SHR from a mid-pack outfit to one of NASCAR's superior organizations.

When Stewart aligned the team in 2009, he brought with him a wealth of sponsors and earned SHR its first race win that same season and first championship two years later. He played a significant role in signing Harvick, who joined the team last season then delivered SHR its second title in four years.

"I've known about this for a while and really struggled to put my arms around what I think about it," Harvick posted on Instagram. "I've seen Tony as my driver, my boss and my friend, but in the end I want to see him smile and be happy in his life."

Stewart also plans to continue racing a wide range of other disciplines including the NASCAR Xfinity and Truck Series divisions -- specifically mentioning a desire to contest the truck race at Eldora Speedway, the popular Ohio dirt track Stewart owns -- and "maybe, probably" a return to sprint car racing.

One thing Stewart will not do is pursue an Indianapolis 500 victory, the race the Indiana native dreamed of winning as he raced open-wheel cars throughout the Midwest. He emphatically shot down the idea with a firm "no" when a reporter asked Wednesday.

Stewart's retirement from NASCAR's premier series comes amid a trying two years. In 2013, he suffered a badly broken right leg when he crashed a sprint car in a race at an Iowa dirt track. That injury caused him to miss the final 15 races of the season.

And in August 2014, Stewart was involved in an incident during a sprint car race that took the life of Kevin Ward Jr.

The 20-year-old Ward had just been in a crash that he blamed Stewart for initiating and was walking on the track when Stewart struck him with the right-rear wheel of his car. An Ontario County grand jury declined to charge Stewart criminally, but the tragedy greatly impacted the three-time Cup Series champion. He missed three NASCAR races dealing with grief and has said Ward's death will stay with him forever.

"Zero percent -- not 1 percent of it has had anything to do with it," Stewart said. "This is strictly what I want to do, and my leg feels fine. There's nothing wrong with my leg. The tragedy, nothing is going to change that. It happened, but it's not going to direct the rest of my life.

"I'm still going to go race when I want to go race."

Stewart's performance has waned considerably since winning a third Cup championship in 2011. Despite recording three victories the following season, he was uncompetitive in NASCAR's playoffs. He last won June 2013 at Dover International Speedway and his current 69-race winless streak is a career-worst. Through 28 races this season, Stewart has just two top-10 finishes and is ranked 25th in the standings.

"It's always been fun," Stewart said. "There's been more challenges in the last couple years that have distracted from that a little bit, but it's still fun. If it wasn't fun, I would just walk away from it."

Entering 2016, Stewart's goals comprise of wanting to win the Daytona 500 and Southern 500, two of NASCAR's biggest races that's he yet to conquer.

SHR named Clint Bowyer to replace Stewart as driver of the No. 14 car beginning in 2017. Stewart called Bowyer his "handpicked" successor. Bowyer's current team, Michael Waltrip Racing, is closing at the end of the season. He is likely to drive for HScott Motorsports next season with announcement regarding his 2016 coming Friday at Dover.

"Tony and I share the same passion for racing," Bowyer said. "That makes this opportunity a perfect fit for me. I appreciate everything he's done for me and the sport of auto racing. These are big shoes to fill, but boy am I ever looking forward to getting behind the wheel of a champion's ride, and have Tony there with me along the way."

Said Stewart, "It's the right time, it's the right opportunity, and when somebody in a scenario like Clint's this year came about, you jump on those opportunities, and you know that timing is everything."