This paper investigates the thermomechanical response of ceramically coated metal parts in elevated thermal environments. This is made possible through the development of an improved finite element algorithm that enables the efficient and stable solution of the inherently nonlinear elastic-creep (inelastic) type thermomechanical field equations associated with high temperature. Based on the improved algorithm, the results of several numerical experiments are presented. These illustrate the significant influence of inelastic behavior in generating residual stress fields.