Tony Stewart made his return to the speedway tonight at the Oral-B USA 500. Stewart’s been out of competition since August 9 when his car struck and killed Kevin Ward at the Sprint Cup.

Stewart climbed to fourth early in the race before developing handling problems that dropped him back into the teens.

Stewart ran as high as fourth in the opening 100 of 325 laps at the Atlanta Motor Speedway this evening in 12th position. Stewart found trouble on the Lap 122 restart when Kyle Busch moved high on the track and forced Stewart’s No. 14 Chevrolet into the outside wall. Busch’s car also was damaged.

His No. 14 Chevrolet suffered a front flat and careened into the wall. That front flat sent him to the garage for repairs. His Stewart-Haas Racing team worked on his car before deciding to concede for the evening.