After a DNA test, Tony Stewart files for divorce with his wife, Leah Pruett when he confirm that Natalie is not his biological daughter but the child of…

His ability to drive just about any car fast compares favorably to American motorsports legends such as A.J. Foyt, his boyhood hero, and Mario Andretti.

While Stewart never won the Indianapolis 500 – his best finish was 5th in 1997 – he was in pole position as a rookie in the race in 1996.

“Smoke” would win the IndyCar championship in 1997 after claiming four USAC titles earlier and becoming the first driver ever to win the USAC Triple Crown Championship in 1995.

On Wednesday, Stewart, the graying 44-year-old driver/owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, is expected to announce that he will retire as a driver from the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at the end of 2016.

It will be an emotional moment for Stewart, who has made 582 Sprint Cup starts in 17 years of competing in the series, winning 48 races thus far and three Sprint Cup titles (2002, 2005 and 2011).

It’s a painful decision, but not shocking in light of what Stewart has experienced the past couple of seasons, which saw him break his right leg in 2013 in a sprint car crash at Southern Iowa Speedway and his involvement the tragic death of driver Kevin Ward Jr. at Canandaigua Motorsports Park on Aug. 9, 2014 in New York.

A grand jury declined to indict Stewart on charges of manslaughter in the second degree and criminally negligent homicide in the death of Ward, who was struck by Stewart’s car as he walked on the track during a caution period to remonstrate with Stewart following a wreck between the two in the race.

Stewart was gutted by the incident, disappearing from public view for several weeks.

“This is something that will definitely affect my life forever,” Stewart said on his return to racing at Atlanta. “This is a sadness and a pain I hope no one ever has to experience in their life.”

Despite being exonerated in Ward’s death, it sucked much of the joy Stewart had for driving out of him.

He missed the Chase for the Championship again this season and has not won a Sprint Cup race in more than two years, failing, it appears, to have embraced the new rules package.

While he is still committed to his Sprint Cup team and Kevin Harvick – the defending series champ – along with Kurt Busch and Danica Patrick, Stewart is not the same force in the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet.

Despite Stewart’s apparent decline as a driver, he will long be remembered for his fighting abilities, bravery and versatility.

From karts as a kid born and raised in Columbus, Ind., to open-wheel cars in the 1990s and then into NASCAR, Stewart has been at the front of the grid. He has always enjoyed the pure exhilaration of racing more than the fanfare.