Mark Martin, Tony Stewart try to add elusive Daytona 500 victory to their long list of accomplishments
Tony Stewart has won two Sprint Cup championships and the Brickyard 400 two, but is still trying to win the Daytona 500.
// LaDon George, NASCAR Illustrated
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – There will be eight former winners in the field when the green flag falls on the 52nd Daytona 500, from Matt Kenseth, the most recent winner, to Bill Elliott, who last saw his name inscribed on the Harley J. Earl trophy 23 seasons ago.
There are many who have come close. For some, it was the highlight of a career. For others, it’s the big one that got away.
For Mark Martin and Tony Stewart, the Daytona 500 remains one of the few elusive races they’ve yet to conquer.
Both have seen victory slip through their grasp. Stewart, a winner here at Daytona International Speedway last July, has finished in the top 10 in the 500 in six of his last seven starts. He’s won a pair of Cup championships, he’s won at the Brickyard, but his trophy case doesn’t contain any hardware marked “Daytona 500 Winner.”
“It is just unpredictable, that’s the hard part,” Stewart says of trying to win the 500. “Especially with the restrictor plate … that has always thrown an added element to it that can bring guys to the front that may not always be able to get there in a typical race weekend.
“That is what makes it so hard to win here, because instead of a handful of guys with the opportunity to win each week, you have half the field that, if things go their way and they get in the right positions and do the right things during the race, [they] can get themselves in a position to win. … You never can, you can say somebody is the favorite; there are so many variables that are different here than at a typical race weekend that make that a different equation.”
Stewart’s been in command, leading with 20 laps remaining in the 2004 race here. But when Dale Earnhardt Jr. powered his way to the front a lap later, Stewart was unable to make a similar charge. He spent the remainder of the event chasing the leader, eventually finishing second.
The 500 is one of two races Stewart had hoped to cross off his to-do list – the other being the Indianapolis 500. He’s come to terms with the fact that winning the May classic at Indy likely won’t happen. Daytona, however, is still there for the taking.
“The good thing is, I still have opportunities here,” Stewart, who will start sixth in the 500, says. “I’m not going to have anymore Indy 500 opportunities, that side of it is past so that is why that is frustrating. This at times has been frustrating because we have been so close so many times. That is why, if we ever do win it, that what’s going to make it so gratifying – because we have worked so hard. We have been so close so many times; to finally accomplish that goal will make it even more special.”
Martin, making his 50th career start at Daytona, has nine career top-10 finishes in the 500. It seemed as if he was destined to finally break through in 2007 when he was leading on a restart with two laps to go. Martin led the field through turns 1 and 2 before Kevin Harvick mounted a charge on the outside, and with drafting help from Matt Kenseth, Harvick pulled alongside Martin in Turn 3 on the white-flag lap. The two were glued together coming out of Turn 4 when Kyle Busch slipped and slid up the track, collecting Kenseth and setting off a huge crash.
With the green flag still displayed, Harvick nosed ahead of Martin to win by 0.002 second.
Martin, who will start from the pole, has 40 career wins in Cup. He’s won on short tracks, intermediate tracks and even the superspeedways – although both his restrictor-plate wins have come at Talladega Superspeedway.
“I’m just lucky to have an outstanding résumé with some holes in it,” Martin says, laughing.
He knows what it takes to win the 500. And he knows that, for whatever reasons, he’s yet to put together the complete package.
“It’s different than it used to be,” Martin says. “Used to, you just had to have a really good car. But now, everybody’s got a really good car. That was hard to have. Now you just have to have a car like everyone else’s and be in front at the end.
“And there’s all different ways for that to happen. That’s what makes it so hard. There’s just every way you can imagine for that to work out. All 43 cars in the field are trying to do that, so that’s how hard it makes it.
“It would be,” Martin says of the 500, “the biggest trophy I have.”
