There’s an adage in baseball that says when you hit “500” (home runs) you get into the Hall of Fame.
If that’s the case, Tony Stewart will punch his ticket to the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Sunday when he hits career start No. 500 upon taking the green for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, will become one of 32 drivers to hit the 500-start mark.
Leading into this milestone race, Stewart has recorded 47 wins, which places him 14th on the all-time series win list. The Columbus, Ind., native has also scored 14 poles, 174 top-fives and 282 top-10s while leading 12,520 laps. Those numbers, along with his three Sprint Cup championships, also make Stewart Hall-of-Fame worthy.
Stewart’s Sprint Cup debut came in the 1999 Daytona 500 and, by his 25th start, he had his first win – Sept. 11, 1999 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. The wins kept coming, as Stewart has at least one victory in each of his 14 Sprint Cup seasons. His high-water mark of six wins in a single season came back in 2000, but the years haven’t done anything to dampen Stewart’s proclivity for spraying champagne in victory lane, as witnessed last year at Homestead when Stewart captured his third Sprint Cup championship in epic fashion.
In a race that went down as one of the best in NASCAR’s long and storied history, Stewart won last year’s raceat Homestead and clinched his third Sprint Cup championship.He led four times for 65 laps to defeat Carl Edwards by 1.306 seconds to score his fifth win of the season and his third in 13 career Sprint Cup starts at Homestead. Ever the overachiever, Stewart passed an incredible 118 cars throughout the 267-lap race around the 1.5-mile oval.
He and Edwards both ended the season tied atop the standings with 2,403 points, but Stewart’s five wins trumped Edwards’ lone victory, giving Stewart the tiebreaker advantage.
Stewart won Sprint Cup titles in 2002 and 2005, and with the 2011 crown, he became the first driver-owner to win a Sprint Cup championship since Alan Kulwicki in 1992. In addition, Stewart became the ninth driver to win three or more championships as he joined Richard Petty (seven), Dale Earnhardt (seven), Jimmie Johnson (five), Jeff Gordon (four), David Pearson (three), Darrell Waltrip (three) Cale Yarborough (three) and Lee Petty (three).
Just as Stewart is far removed from his first career start back in 1999, he’s far removed from this year’s title chase. Currently ninth in the standings, Stewart is 87 points out of first and mathematically eliminated from title contention. Regardless, he is in good company, as only two drivers from the 12-driver Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field remain eligible for this year’s championship – Brad Keselowski and five-time Sprint Cup champion Johnson.
Just as Stewart and Edwards made the rest of the Sprint Cup field onlookers to last year’s championship, Keselowski and Johnson have done the same this year. However, their duel still pales in comparison to the one of Stewart and Edwards. That duo came into Homestead separated by only three points, and if either driver won, that driver would win the championship. Both drivers led, but it was Stewart who came out on top – in the race and in the championship.
Twenty points separate Johnson from Chase leader Keselowski, to where all Keselowski has to do is finish 15th or better in Sunday’s season finale and he’ll win the championship, regardless of how Johnson fares. But as we saw last Sunday in the series’ penultimate race at Phoenix International Raceway, anything can happen, as Johnson came into Phoenix with a seven-point lead but left with a 20-point deficit after a flat right-front tire sent him into the wall.
Stewart, the reigning Sprint Cup champion for only a few more days, will watch this championship battle play out. By no means, however, will Stewart just ride around Homestead as Keselowski and Johnson chase the trophy he won last year. There is still a race trophy up for grabs, and with three wins already this season, but none since the July 7 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway – a span of 17 races – Stewart is keen on ending his 14th season in Sprint Cup by putting his No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet in Homestead’s victory lane for a fourth time.
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