He had a few chances to win the Daytona 500, but couldn't capitalize when it mattered most, but it always seemed like Tony Stewart heated up during the mid-part of the year and won most of his races in the summertime so it doesn't surprise me that he has 4 in the Pepsi 400.
+Evan WIlliams I'll agree w/ you there. Heck, you look at Tony's championship years, (just the two he got chase or no chase, not his 2011 chase victory) Tony never seemed like a true threat until Sonoma, at the earliest. In 2002, I think his turning point was his win at Watkins Glen. (Of course, it also did him a favor that Sterling Marlin got injured.) In 2005, he was okay for the first 15 races, but then his win at Sonoma was what really kicked things in gear for him. Had there been no chase, Stewart would've won the championship by a whopping 200+ points over Greg Biffle. In his 2011 Chase Championship, he never showed any signs of life until Atlanta-- 2 races before the Chase. Then he goes on to win half of the Chase races to win the Chase Championship. But now, back to the original topic: him never winning the Daytona 500. Even though Tony's never really been a start-of-the-season kind of guy, it really does surprise me that he never won the Daytona 500. Especially when you consider that he's won 3 pre-season races at Daytona, and he's won the season-opening race for the Xfinity Series 7 times. And yes, I do remember how close Tony came at times. - In 2004, he was running 2nd to Dale Jr. at the finish. - In 2005, it was a hotly contested battle that came down to the wire, and Tony Stewart ended up finishing 7th after all the jocking for position was done. - 2008, was leading on the last lap, but instead of trying to keep Ryan Newman blocked, he moved down in front of Kyle Busch, and the Penske cars both went by. - 2011, he took the last restart on the front row, then got shuffled out. It really is a shame Smoke never won the 500, but he certainly had the capability.
+sfkeeyan Only reason I enjoyed it at the time was because I was an anti-Tony Stewart fan at the time. But yes, looking back on it now, it IS painful to watch for Tony. I guess he thought that Kyle would give him a push or something. Still, though, this was the Daytona 500. He shouldn't have been worried about helping a teammate.
There are a lot of dominance stories in NASCAR. One of the most forgotten ones is Tony Stewart winning 7 out of 9 February Xfinity races from 2005 to 2013. Even though plate tracks are more luck than skill, to win that many of the same race in that period of time is crazy. It reminded me of Darrell's 7 Bristol wins in a row. Not as difficult, but still really amazing.
This man was one of the greatest at Daytona. He www close to winning Daytona 500 a few times. He was always strong. The one time his engine blew up on lap 1, I literally fell to my knees. Ugh that was break. However as I said other than Earnhardt SR, Stewart in my mind is easily top of that list as best plate racer. It's a shame he never won a 500. However other than Dale Sr, he has won the most races at Daytona. Obviously Dale Sr was the best and wasn't close. ..
I been thinking for while about doing this type of video for Tony in his last season, so as the rest of the season goes on I'll post all of tony's wins at a track, and during the off season I'll go back and do the same for Jeff Gordon.
Well, it was less bad luck and more just he couldn't quite finish his strong runs with a win, often getting second. He still was a threat every time they went to Daytona, but it was almost like watching Dale Sr. when it came to watching Smoke lose the 500 and unlike Dale Sr, Smoke never got that elusive 500 win.
@@imapopo2924 ; Very true about Dale Sr. 98 was is first & only Daytona 500 win he even raced in Rolex Sports Car Series dont know if he won anything in that series or not sadly he died in worst year of deaths 01.I Would love to see Dale Jr race in those Corvette's again since he's retired from Nascar
Imagine Sr surviving that accident. Both drivers being unforgivabley aggressive them 2 would constantly be at each other until Sr chose to retire. Intimadator vs Last Nascar Badass.
