IN BRIEF (Page 24)

Motor Racing

Early exit for Stewart on return

Tony Stewart received a rapturous welcome and made a fast start before making a premature exit on his return to competitive racing on Sunday, three weeks after he struck and killed a young racer at a dirt track in New York. The three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion twice hit the wall at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the second collision occurring after his right front tire blew out on the 172nd lap, forcing him to quit the 325-lap race. Stewart had missed three NASCAR races since the Aug 9 accident in which he killed 20-year-old Kevin Ward Jr. during a non-NASCAR sprint car race.