Fearless Forecast: Tony Stewart Will Win the Daytona 500
Junior Nation will either bummed or upset when I say this, but Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s dominance this week will come to an end tomorrow when Tony Stewart wins the Daytona 500. The planets are aligned and he won’t be denied in picking up his first win at the Super Bowl of NASCAR. My prediction is more than a gut feeling. Here’s why:
1) Team Support- Mark Martin’s demise last year demonstrated how a driver needs help to win at Daytona. Not only has Stewart been running well this week, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin are also looking good. Joe Gibbs Racing is on its game, and Stewart will have no less than two drivers helping him. Auto racing becomes more of an individual thing once the green flags drops, but you gotta know if a driver can;t win it for himself, he’ll be more than happy to give a little love to a teammate in the draft.
2) Toyota Engines- According to a report on Fox Sports Radio this morning, Toyota has provided great engines for Daytona, running a couple of extra hundred RPMs over the others. We’re talking about the kind of power that shave a couple of tenths of a second off of a lap, and that will be critical in a field that is EXTREMELY competitive.
3) Tony’s Head Is Right- Stewart is a heart on the sleeve kind of guy, and he’s just looking very at home at NASCAR’s premier track. You could just see him messing around yesterday- smiling and changing his hats every 5 minutes. The Rushville Rocket also looks loose in interviews. Compare that to the rough stretches that he last year where he said driving wasn’t fun anymore.
As I post this, Tony is running out front in the Nationwide Camping World 300. His teammates are also running in the top 10.
The Hendrick boys- especially Johnson and Earnhardt- will be around to push the Gibbs team- but in the end, the Big Orange will be looking for some prime fence to climb at the Daytona 500.
