When it comes to summer Sprint Cup racing at Daytona International Speedway, few are better than Tony Stewart.
Actually, Stewart has enjoyed great success at Daytona in all kinds of races other than the Daytona 500, which he has never won. He has four wins in the July race, in 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2012, and 15 others in various races at Daytona. His 19 overall victories are the most of any active driver and second all-time behind the late Dale Earnhardt, who has 34.
Stewart, who in the past has been critical of the kind of racing that restrictor plates produce at Daytona and its sister track Talladega Superspeedway, said in his team’s weekly release that it takes more than skill to win at those tracks.
“Someone described racing on the superspeedways as being a combination of a science project and the luck of a casino, and it’s exactly that way,” he said. “You do everything in your power to take care of the science or technology side. You do everything you can to build the fastest car. If you don’t have the luck to go with it, if you’re just in the wrong spot at the wrong time, it can take you out of the opportunity to take the best race car in the field and win.”
Another win at Daytona couldn’t come at a better time for Stewart, the runner-up to Jimmie Johnson in last year’s Coke Zero 400. He’s 16th in the Sprint Cup standings, winless so far this season and in jeopardy of missing the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
A win in one of the next nine races would all but assure him of a Chase berth.
Truex, Furniture Row could use a break: Perhaps no driver and team are more in need of the fresh start that a return to Daytona can provide than Martin Truex Jr. and Furniture Row Racing.
The pairing of Truex and the Furniture Row team seemed like a winning combination when it was announced last fall.
Truex qualified for the 2013 Chase for the Sprint Cup only to have his berth taken away because of points-manipulating shenanigans by his old team, Michael Waltrip Racing. And Furniture Row, a single-car team based in Denver, made the 2013 Chase with driver Kurt Busch, who later bolted to Stewart-Haas Racing.
But this season, Truex and the No. 78 Chevrolet team can’t seem to get a break. He fell out of the season-opening Daytona 500 with engine issues and finished 43rd. Two weeks ago at Sonoma Raceway, where he was the defending race winner, he was involved in a Lap 1 wreck and had to battle back for a 15th-place finish.
Last Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway, Truex was hampered by two pit-road incidents, one that saw him get spun around from behind, and struggled to a 19th-place finish.
Truex, who ranks 25th in the Cup points standings, with no top-five finishes this season and three top-10s, said his Daytona 500 troubles were tough to take, but he has an all-new attitude heading into this weekend.
“No question, that (43rd-place Daytona 500 finish) really hurt,” Truex said in his team’s weekly release. “Going from the potential of winning the 500 to last place was a very humbling experience. But we’re coming back to Daytona with the same enthusiasm and optimism that we had going into the 500.”
