Throughout his 17-year NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career, Tony Stewart has averaged 17.5 top-10 finishes per season.
This year, he only claims one – a sixth-place showing in April at Bristol.
And there are only 20 races left.
Stewart’s struggles have put him in an unescapable hole in the driver point standings. The three-time NSCS champion ranks 26th in the standings, 130 points behind Aric Almirola for the final spot on the current Chase Grid.
Luckily for Stewart, under the new Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format, a win in the next 10 races is all he needs to secure a berth in NASCAR’s playoffs.
One visit to Victory Lane can turn his season around.
That visit could occur in Sunday’s Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway (Pre-Race: 7 p.m. ET on NBC | Race: 7:45 p.m. ET on NBC) – a track Stewart has dominated in the month of July.
Stewart boasts 19 wins at DIS across NASCAR’s national series, more than any driver not named Dale Earnhardt. Of those 19 triumphs, four have come in a NSCS points race – all in the Coke Zero 400.
“Everybody has got a shot at Daytona,” Stewart said. “We’ve been in that position before and have actually been able to take advantage quite a few times. The biggest thing is it gives you confidence that you’ve got a shot.”
The last time Stewart took advantage of his position at Daytona was July 7, 2012. He led 22 laps just past the midway point before giving up the point to Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle. The No. 14 Chevrolet driver waited patiently all the way until a two-lap restart at the end of the race when he passed Kenseth and Biffle on the final go-around to win under caution.
“The biggest challenge was Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle because when they hooked up, I didn’t think there was anybody that could beat them,” Stewart said. “But we were able to stay in touch with them, and I got a great restart with Kasey Kahne helping me.
“They were coming on the outside in (turns) three and four and the last wreck happened, and we were just fortunate enough to be leading still.”
Stewart’s only win since his 2012 Daytona checkered came at Dover in 2013 (57 starts and 75 races ago). He will try to turn his performance around at the track where he has led the most July laps (369) among active drivers and where he’s the only active driver to win two consecutive July races (2005-06).
While Stewart has exceled in his career at restrictor-plate racing – particularly at Daytona – he finds it frustrating. “I’m glad we’re halfway decent at it, but it’s still always frustrating when you have to rely on what everybody else does,” Stewart said. “It’s not what you do. It’s what you do along with somebody else who decides that they’re going to follow you and help you. That’s the part that frustrates you as a driver. “The great thing about restrictor-plate racing though is that 43 cars all have the same shot at winning the race, but again, that’s also part of what makes it frustrating, too. It’s just being at the right place at the right time.”
