If there’s anyone who’s just a kid at heart, it’s Tony Stewart.
That’s why there’s no better driver to help Oreo kick off its 100th birthday celebration than the three-time and reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion.
While Stewart hopes to defend his Sprint Cup title in 2012, there’s one other title he hopes to retain as the season gets underway at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway – the winner of the season-opening NASCAR Nationwide Series race.
Celebrating a win right out of the box on the Nationwide Series’ biggest stage has become second nature to Stewart. He has six total wins in the DRIVE4COPD 300, including the last four in a row.
Should Stewart win Saturday, he will tie the late Dale Earnhardt for the most wins in the Nationwide Series at Daytona with seven.
Beginning in 2005, Stewart has won the opening round of the Nationwide Series at Daytona every year with the exception of 2007, when Kevin Harvick proved victorious. In that race, Stewart finished eighth. Every other year, it’s Stewart who’s been to victory lane, and he’s done it driving for three different car owners – Joe Gibbs in 2008, Rick Hendrick in 2009 and Harvick in 2005, 2006, 2010 and 2011.
This year, Stewart looks to earn his seventh victory in the first race of the season with his fourth different owner as he pilots the No. 33 OREO 100th Birthday Chevrolet Impala for Richard Childress Racing (RCR).
Stewart’s relationship with Kraft Foods’ Oreo and Ritz brands is a byproduct of the company’s partnership with Stewart and the Sprint Cup team he co-owns with Haas Automation founder Gene Haas – Stewart-Haas Racing. The Oreo cookie and Ritz cracker brands are Stewart-Haas Racing’s official cookie and cracker, with Stewart and his Sprint Cup teammate Ryan Newman carrying the brand’s colors on their respective uniforms and cars.
This year, Stewart makes a return to the No. 33 Chevrolet, which is the same car number he piloted when he earned his first Nationwide Series victory at Daytona in 2005. That win was also his first career Nationwide Series win. Stewart also won in the No. 33 in 2006.
And while Stewart will be with a new car owner in this year’s Nationwide Series race at Daytona, he will have some familiarity with the team. Several of the current team members at RCR worked on the cars he won with from Kevin Harvick, Inc. (KHI), which sold its Nationwide Series operation to RCR at the end of the 2011 season.
There would be no better way to kick off the monumental 100th birthday celebration for Oreo, the sponsor of the No. 33 Chevrolet, than by celebrating a Daytona victory. Oreo officially turns 100 years old on March 6.
It’s almost become a February tradition to see Stewart pull into victory lane on the Nationwide Series’ biggest stage – just like Oreos have become a snack-time tradition in households around the country. While Stewart has won the last four February Nationwide Series races at Daytona, none would be bigger, at least in his eyes, than if he were to earn a fifth consecutive win this Saturday.
Stewart has loved to snack on the iconic Oreo brand of cookies since his childhood, and to celebrate its birthday with a big win at Daytona would be just as refreshing as enjoying an Oreo cookie dipped in a tall glass of milk. Simply put, a win would be a slam dunk for Stewart and Oreo.
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