Tony Stewart has been racing at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway since February 1996 when he qualified a Pontiac for car owner Harry Ranier in the season-opening NASCAR Nationwide Series race. Since then, Stewart has competed on Daytona’s 2.5-mile oval 70 times and on its 3.56-mile road course nine times (once in IROC and eight times in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series). On 17 of those occasions, Stewart has emerged the victor.
Sixteen of those wins have come on the oval – nine in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (three point-paying and six non-point-paying), six in the Nationwide Series and one in IROC. The lone road course win came in 2006 when Stewart won Round 3 of IROC XXX – the last time the now defunct series ran on Daytona’s road course.
Stewart earned all three of his point-paying Sprint Cup victories in the Coke Zero 400, as he took the checkered flag for the 400-miler in 2005, 2006 and 2009.
Until Stewart won at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in October 2008, his July wins at Daytona were his only restrictor-plate victories, as the 2.66-mile Talladega oval is the sister track to Daytona.
Yet he scored all those wins in impressive fashion. In the July 2005 race at Daytona, Stewart won the pole and led all but nine of the race’s 160 laps (94.4 percent). In the July 2006 race at Daytona, Stewart started second and led six times for a race-high 86 laps (53.8 percent). In the October 2008 race at Talladega, Stewart led four times for a race-high 24 laps (12.6 percent). And in the July 2009 race at Daytona, Stewart again started from the pole and led nine times for a race-high 86 laps (53.7 percent).
However, Stewart’s prowess in restrictor-plate racing should not be measured in wins alone, for judging the driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/ Office Depot Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing only by his victories would be a disservice to the three-time and reigning Sprint Cup champ.
Take the 2005 and 2006 seasons, where Stewart dominated the restrictor-plate races but only had his two Coke Zero 400 victories to show for his efforts.
Of the 747 laps available in the four restrictor-plate races run in 2005 – 203 laps in the Daytona 500, 194 laps at Talladega in May, 160 laps at Daytona in July and 190 laps at Talladega in October – Stewart led 325 of those laps (43.5 percent). And in those four races, Stewart finished seventh, second, first and second, respectively, to log an average finish of third.
And of the 739 laps available in the four restrictor-plate races run in 2006 – 203 laps in the Daytona 500, 188 laps at Talladega in April, 160 laps at Daytona in July and 188 laps at Talladega in October – Stewart led 118 of those laps (16 percent). And in those four races, Stewart finished fifth, second, first and 22nd, respectively, to log an average finish of seventh.
With an impressive track record at Daytona, as exemplified by the most recent Daytona trophy he picked up for winning the non-points Gatorade Duel race in February, Stewart is ready to get back to his dominating ways. With a Chevrolet made slick through countless hours in the wind tunnel and a Hendrick engine powering it through Florida’s trademark humidity, Stewart is zeroed in on scoring another win in this year’s Coke Zero 400.
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