Maybe this is his moment
It took Tony Stewart 25 starts to earn his first NASCAR victory and end the longest drought of his professional career.
The two-time NASCAR champion isn’t close to breaking that 1999 mark just yet, but he heads into tonight’s race at Daytona International Speedway at Daytona Beach, Fla., the 18th event of the season – still searching for his first win.
“I didn’t realize he hasn’t won,” said Jimmie Johnson, a four-time winner this season. “I guess I expect him to win all the time.”
So does Stewart, who has every reason to believe a win is in his immediate future. He probably should have about four of them this season, but mechanical issues and accidents derailed what looked to be certain victories.
He’s been untouchable at this track – he probably would have won the season-opening Daytona 500 if Kurt Busch didn’t knock him out of contention – and in this race. Stewart is the two-time defending Pepsi 400 winner, leading all but nine of the 160 laps in 2005 then following it last season by leading a race-high 86 laps.
The consecutive wins tied him with David Pearson, Cale Yarborough and A.J. Foyt as the only back-to-back Daytona winners, and a win tonight would elevate him to elite status: Pearson is the only driver to win this event, then known as the Firecracker 400, three straight times.
“I would be foolish not to consider him the favorite,” Johnson said. “They always have the magic setup here for the hot summer July races. So I think he’s the favorite going in and you might see him climbing that fence again and do a stage dive into the fans.”
Stewart started that celebratory practice following his 2005 win and kept on climbing through the summer as he won five times in a seven-race span. His desire to shake off the cobwebs and climb again is strong, but he’s too superstitious to plan for it tonight.
Besides, he knows better than to assume the victory is his for the taking. He’s learned the hard way that nothing is guaranteed, starting with the 500 here in February.
He dominated Speedweeks, winning the exhibition Budweiser Shootout, a qualifying heat and pacing almost every practice session. Then he led 35 laps of the main event, but never made it to the finish after Busch knocked him into the wall.
He’s long past it, and can’t be bothered to even discuss it.
“That was clear back in February and I’ve done a lot of stuff since then,” he said. “The last time I checked, February’s over and you can’t do anything about it.”
Nor can he do anything to change Atlanta (121 laps led), Bristol (257), Phoenix (132) or Charlotte (55). He dominated at every track, but failed to make it to Victory Lane. The frustration mounted in late April, when he criticized NASCAR officials and likened the sport to professional wrestling on his radio show, but quickly retracted and has since been a model of good behavior.
But as the winless streak goes on, the hot-tempered Stewart has been a ticking time bomb that everyone expects to erupt.
“You guys all want me to be ready to explode, but I’m not going to do that,” Stewart said.
Qualifying rained out
Qualifying for the Pepsi 400 was washed out Friday, leaving several teams out of the season’s second race at NASCAR’s most storied track.
Nextel Cup series points leader Jeff Gordon was awarded the pole. Denny Hamlin will start second, followed by Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Burton.
Boris Said and two others were poised to make the race, but steady rain forced NASCAR officials to cancel the qualifying session with 14 cars left to make runs.
Said was sitting on the pole when the rain started, and Dave Blaney, Jeremy Mayfield, Kenny Wallace, Michael Waltrip, Scott Riggs and David Reutimann also were in position to make the 43-car field.
But three of the top seven cars that had completed runs were bumped because owner points are used to set the starting grid when qualifying gets canceled.
The top 35 spots in the field were set using owner points.