Tony Stewart A Match For The Masters

Sports tend to exude rich history steeped in tradition. This week two different sports visit venues where their respective roots run deep.

One of the most nostalgic and iconic events in all of sports is taking place this week as golf makes its annual trek to a venue matched in status by the contest it hosts – the Masters at Augusta (Ga.) National Golf Club. Augusta National, designed by golfing legend Bobby Jones in 1932, is one of those rare venues that transcends its sport. The green jacket awarded annually to the Masters winner is one of the most coveted prizes in all of sports.

Matching the historical significance of Augusta National is another iconic venue that lies a mere 145 miles north on Interstate 20, except instead of blooming azaleas lining its confines, a red-and-white checkered wall lines one’s path to glory. 

Darlington (S.C.) Raceway is one of NASCAR’s oldest venues. Built in 1949 by Harold Brasington, the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval has hosted NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races since 1950, and Saturday night will mark the 65th running of the Southern 500 – one of the crown-jewel races on the 36-race Sprint Cup schedule.

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing, is very much aware of Darlington’s history. The three-time Sprint Cup champion has yet to score a Sprint Cup win at the track aptly known as “Too Tough To Tame”, making it one of only two tracks the Sprint Cup Series visits where Stewart has yet to win – the other being Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, which was only added to the schedule three years ago.

But beyond checking Darlington off his “to-do” list, Stewart knows the track’s history and its list of winners, particularly those who won and set the stage for NASCAR’s rise to mainstream prominence – inaugural Southern 500 winner Johnny Mantz and multi-time Darlington victors David Person, Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon being some of the most notable.

Despite his open-wheel upbringing and Indiana roots, Stewart knows the Southern staple of racing at Darlington and has always approached its races with nothing but the highest regard.

Since becoming a full-time Sprint Cup driver in 1999 where in his first Sprint Cup race at Darlington he finished a respectable sixth, Stewart has posted solid results. In total, he’s made 21 career Sprint Cup starts at Darlington, scoring four top-fives and 11 top-10s. His average finish is 12th and he has finished on the lead lap in all but four of those 21 races, earning him a lap completion rate of 99 percent. And in the last nine Sprint Cup races at Darlington, no driver has completed more green-flag passes than Stewart (563).

While Stewart has been productive at Darlington, that’s not to say he hasn’t endured his share of “Darlington Stripes,” the ubiquitous rite of passage that adorn the right sides of racecars after a too-close encounter with the track’s old school red-and-white striped walls. Darlington’s 23 and 25-degree-banked corners could also be called Amen Corner, for they’ve chewed up and spit out many a competitor.

Currently, the box next to “Southern 500 victory” remains unchecked on what is sure to be a Hall-of-Fame-worthy career, as Stewart’s 48 career Sprint Cup wins attest.

While many a golfing great went winless at the Masters – Greg Norman, Hale Irwin, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller and Nick Price to name a few – Stewart has no intention of seeing his name absent from Darlington Raceway’s victory scroll. With NASCAR’s annual pilgrimage to its version of Augusta National next up on the Sprint Cup docket, Stewart sees opportunity to add another jewel to his crown.

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