Tony Stewart The Mighty Ducks 2.0

Have you ever seen a flock of ducks flying in perfect formation? It’s beautiful. Pretty awesome the way they all stick together. Ducks never say die. Ever see a duck fight? No way. Why? Because the other animals are afraid. They know if they mess with one duck, they gotta deal with the whole flock. I’m proud to be a Duck, and I’d be proud to fly with any one of you. So how about it? Who’s a Duck?”

Emilio Estevez’s character Gordon Bombay delivered that speech in the popular 1992 sports comedy “The Mighty Ducks” in an attempt to encourage his team of young players to exercise a little teamwork, similar in style to a flock of ducks working in tandem to achieve a common goal. The result was a victory in the state championship match against the film’s antagonist team, the Hawks. The message was the modern equivalent of Greek philosopher Aristotle’s famous missive that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

With three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships to his credit, Tony Stewart knows a good bit about the importance of teamwork. And come Saturday night when he wheels his No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Ducks Unlimited Chevrolet SS in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Stewart and Co. aim to be “Mighty Ducks” when the checkered flag waves on the 160-lap contest. Stewart and primary sponsor Bass Pro Shops will exercise a little teamwork in bringing attention to Ducks Unlimited Inc., the world’s largest non-profit organization dedicated to conserving North America’s continually disappearing waterfowl habitats.

Since 1937, Ducks Unlimited has conserved more than 13 million acres thanks to contributions from more than a million supporters across North America. At the organization’s national convention back in mid-May, Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris presented a $76,000 check to CEO Dale Hall congratulating Ducks Unlimited on 76 years of conservation work. “Conservation is the only way we can ensure our grandchildren and their children will have the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors like our generation has, and Ducks Unlimited has been promoting conservation for the past 76 years,” Morris said during the presentation. “It’s a tremendous organization with a great mission, and I’m proud to call myself a Ducks Unlimited member.”

And now Ducks Unlimited will share the hood of the No. 14 Chevrolet with Bass Pro Shops for this weekend’s annual Fourth of July weekend race at Daytona – an event in which Stewart is a four-time winner (2005, 2006, 2009 and 2012), including last year’s race when he led 22 laps.

During the 2012 edition of the Coke Zero 400, Stewart exercised a lot of patience, waiting to make his case for the win well past the race’s halfway mark. He took the lead on lap 131 and led 21 circuits before relinquishing the spot to the duo of Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle on lap 152 when a massive crash set up a two-lap dash to the finish. Stewart regained the lead on the final lap with an impressive drive around Biffle and Kenseth off turn two and down the backstretch when another multi-car wreck brought out the caution, securing Stewart’s victory. The win was the 47th of Stewart’s 48 career Sprint Cup wins.

While Stewart doesn’t consider himself a fan of restrictor-plate racing, his stats tell a much different story.

In 29 career, point-paying Sprint Cup starts at Daytona, Stewart has a pole, six top-threes, eight top-fives, 13 top-10s and has led a total of 665 laps to go along with his four wins. He has an average start of 11.6, an average finish of 17.0 and has a lap completion rate of 90.9 percent.

Between Sprint Cup point-paying races, non-point events, the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the defunct IROC series, Stewart has a total of 19 Daytona wins, placing him second on the track’s all-time win list, 15 behind Dale Earnhardt, who has 34 total victories at Daytona and is part of the inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame class of 2010. Additionally, Stewart has won at least one race at the 2.5-mile oval for the past nine years.

With all that he has accomplished and continues to achieve, it’s a cast-iron certainty that Stewart will someday join Earnhardt as a NASCAR Hall-of-Famer. Much like Earnhardt, Stewart’s philanthropic endeavors have become the stuff of legend. Throughout his career Stewart has taken the opportunity to “give back” quietly and often. If he can find a little success while promoting the good works of Ducks Unlimited this weekend at Daytona, he will prove that even in NASCAR, ducks fly together.

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