Motorsports

Legacy missing a link

Tony Stewart's all-around success harkens back to racing's legends, but he lacks two big wins are missing. He's a contender to get one today.

By BRANT JAMES
Published February 19, 2006

DAYTONA BEACH - Mario Andretti has no higher compliment than "racer." Tony Stewart, he said, is a racer.

But even as the sport's most famous and arguably most accomplished driver bestows his gold seal on the 34-year-old, he admits that if Stewart's career were to end today, there are those - within the small racer community and out - who would regard it as incomplete.

Stewart has won titles in all forms of racing at all levels. He is a two-time and defending Nextel Cup champion, the 1997 Indy Racing League champion, the first to win the U.S. Auto Club Triple Crown (in 1995). He has 24 career Nextel Cup wins and is the only driver to win both a NASCAR championship and a major open-wheel title.

But those two unchecked boxes are nagging.

The Indianapolis 500.

The Daytona 500.

"You feel for guys you know deserve it, that you know have the ability but will be considered less of a champion if they don't get it done," Andretti said of winning one of the sport's two greatest races. "That's why the guy that wins it does somersaults."

Stewart gets his eighth shot at NASCAR's biggest prize today. If he attains what he calls his No. 1 goal for the season, he'll earn his way into select company.

If not, Stewart said, in his usually frank manner, then oh, well. He'll judge his career for himself.

"I don't care about (people's) assessment," he said. "I'm really happy with what I've done.

"I don't think you can base your whole career off of one race. I think there's other determining factors on whether you've had a successful career in the series other than just one race."

There is both comfort and consternation for Stewart in having been often untouchable at Daytona in recent years. His sense of history and stout aerodynamic push helped Dale Earnhardt Jr. win his first Daytona 500 in 2004. He led 107 laps and finished seventh in the 500 last year.

Stewart led 151 of 160 laps from the pole to win the Pepsi 400 at Daytona in July. He also has won the past two season-opening Busch Series races there as a moonlighter, including Saturday. "The last two years I've led enough laps to win the (Daytona 500) outright," he said. "I'm looking forward to it, but, again, there's no guarantees. But with the last two years, the way we ran here, coming back as the champions, is the best-case scenario that you can come back in."

Stewart has seven top-10s in his past 10 restrictor-plate races, including the Pepsi 400, his first win at Daytona or Talladega. He has the best average finish (7.1) and led the most laps (445) of any driver at Daytona and Talladega during that span.

The unforgiving nature of restrictor-plate racing makes the Daytona 500 a particularly tough prize to capture, however. Victory has eluded some of the sport's legends at Daytona as lesser drivers have thrived there.

"There's a lot of guys that haven't won the Daytona 500, but I think they've had great careers," Stewart said. "You look at Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin, they haven't won the Daytona 500, but I don't think anybody is going to say they haven't had a great career and successful career in NASCAR.

"Michael Waltrip has won the Daytona 500 twice and never won a championship, and he's won only (four) races in his career. I don't think anybody is going to say he's had a great career just because he's won the Daytona 500."

Stewart, an Indiana native, fulfilled a personal dream in August when he won the Brickyard 400 at his beloved Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A three-year IRL driver, he has a pole and three top-10s in five Indy 500 starts. Motorsports' most hallowed race still holds a fascination for him and is an obsession to his father, Nelson, but a change in the race's start time and the demands of his Nextel Cup schedule and sponsors have made another bid for the Borg-Warner Trophy very difficult.

Stewart created a pit road spectacle at Indy in 2004 when he showed up in a firesuit next to team owner and four-time Indy-winner A.J. Foyt on Bump Day. Stewart passed his physical and sat in a car, but contractual tangles ended his bid before he drove a lap, proving that the money that drives racing is also stifling potential history.

Stewart figures to have many more attempts at the Daytona 500, however. If he were to win either race he would be a legend. If he were to win both, his legend would go supernova, joining Andretti and Foyt as the only drivers to win both of U.S. racing's gems.

Winning both wouldn't prove anything about Stewart's ability in a car, Andretti said. But it would provide the validation that does not fade with time.

"Our sport is unfair sometimes," Andretti said. "If (Stewart) wins Daytona and Indy, would that make him a better driver? No. He would just be looked at as a more complete driver. I look at my son Michael, that never won Indy. He led more laps than some four-time winners, but was he capable of winning it? You're damned right. Was Stewart capable of winning the Daytona 500? You're damned right. That's the unfair part. That's what makes you so happy when you finally get it because you get that weight off your back. It's not for yourself but to the outside world.

"That's unfortunate, but these are the facts."

Dale Earnhardt won 20 events at Daytona, but was confounded by the 500 and the seven-time champion's legacy left incomplete until finally winning for the only time in his career in 1998.

"(Earnhardt) won every possible race at Daytona,, but until he won the 500, people didn't think his career was complete," Andretti said. "As a professional, there are elements out of your control but they can make the difference as to how you're viewed."

Casey Mears, a Nextel Cup driver whose uncle, Rick, won four Indy 500s, has an unyielding criteria for what makes a racing legend. Undoubtedly, he said, Stewart is one of the best of his generation. But he still has something - two somethings - to prove to be a legend.

"Put Tony aside," he said. "There's a lot of guys who've won the championship over the course of the years, but there's not many guys that people look at and go, "Oh, he was the champion that year.' Guys go, "Oh, he was the Indy 500-winner.' I think that Tony is a great driver and always will be whether he wins either one of those. He'll have a great legacy, but I think to cement it and put a topper on it, he definitely needs to win one of the two."

Maybe it's today.

[Last modified February 19, 2006, 01:09:21]