Childress, Earnhardt Commemorate 1998 Daytona 500

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Tony Stewart was already grumpy and he hadn’t made it through Feb. 7th’s NASCAR Media Day yet.
The  two-time Sprint Cup champion was tired of answering the same questions  he’s been hearing since the end of last season and wasn’t afraid to let the  throng of media hear his discontent.
“What are you going to ask me today that you didn’t ask me two weeks ago and three weeks ago and five weeks ago?” Stewart fired at the media. “Ask me something different.”
Stewart is already tired of being asked what it will be like switching from Chevrolet to Toyota this season. Or, how the current generation race car, previously known as the Car of Tomorrow, is going to drive during the Daytona 500. And don’t ask him about his favorite Daytona 500 memory because in nine tries he has never won the race, despite leading many of them.
“It’s the Daytona 500 and I like coming here whether you have won it 10 times or haven’t won it at all,” Stewart said. “And, it doesn’t matter if it’s the 50th Daytona 500, the 23rd year; the 82nd year, it doesn’t matter. You are here 10 days to win one race.
“There are no guarantees anybody is going to win. I’ve led 260-some odd laps in the Daytona 500 and still haven’t won it. I’m not going to boo- hoo because I haven’t won it.  I’m just going to try to go out and win it.”

• Dale Earnhardt, Inc. team owner Teresa Earnhardt participated along with Richard Childress in a ceremony to recognize the 10th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt’s historic win in the 1998 Daytona 500 on Sunday morning.
In celebration of this famous victory, Motorsports Authentics will be offering a collectible version of the legendary black No. 3 GM Goodwrench Service Plus Chevrolet Impala SS through its Action Racing Collectables die-cast brand.
This was the morning after DEI’s former driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., won Saturday’s  Budweiser Shootout.
Teresa Earnhardt was pursued by two reporters after the announcement to get her reaction to Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s victory in his first race at Hendrick Motorsports.
She refused.
“I’m here today to talk about Dale’s car,” she said as she walked away.

• With Hendrick Motorsports winning the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jimmie Johnson winning the Daytona 500 pole, it would be easy to expect other NASCAR teams to be intimidated about another Hendrick runaway season.
But Richard Childress said not so fast on making that assumption.
“That’s one race,” Childress said. “We’re all fired up at RCR. We’ll have three cars in the 500 and we’re not excited about qualifying, but we’ve got seven days between qualifying and the 500 to get ready for it and I think we’ll be right there and be ready for them.”
“We’re not real excited about qualifying, but I think our cars are really going to race good. We spent a lot of time down here getting our cars so they can drive and race good. And we’re excited about the race itself. I think we’re going to be good.”
Having experienced so much success at Daytona with Dale Earnhardt as his driver, Childress believes it’s also a big deal for the sport when Dale, Jr. wins a race at Daytona.
“I think it’s big,” Childress said. “If we can’t win, I’d just as soon see Dale, Jr. win. We’re pulling for any of the cars that have got the ECR engines in them. If none of those cars win, we root for Junior.
“He’s that good here. He’s just like his dad was. He’s really good on this race track and he put the thing in the right place and had  his car in position to win in the end.”

• David Reutimann’s fourth-place effort in Daytona 500 qualifications has him locked into the starting field of the Daytona 500, regardless of what happens in Thursday’s Gatorade Daytona Duels.
“That would mean a lot to be able to start the qualifying race and know that no matter what happens, I will be in the Daytona 500 — that allows me to feel like the rest of the guys feel,” said Reutimann, who ran a lap at 186.463 mph for Michael Waltrip Racing. “That way you can concentrate on the race and you don’t have to take chances that you  normally wouldn’t.”
Reutimann was one of three Toyota Camrys in  the top five in Sunday’s qualifications. Dave Blaney qualified fifth at 186.120 mph.
Blaney is pleased with the markedly improved performance of Toyota this season.
“All of us have definitely elevated our performance, no doubt,” he said. “I think it showed last night when we ran well.  Tony’s (Stewart) car ran well and Denny (Hamlin) did until it got injured a little bit.  The Toyotas will be looking for big things all year.”