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2013 Daytona: Austin Dillon NASCAR Nationwide Race Preview
This Week's Ritz Crackers/Oreo Chevrolet at Daytona International Speedway ... Tony Stewart will pilot Chassis No.123 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Nationwide Series stable in the DRIVE4COPD 300. This Chevrolet will run its first competitive laps during the 2013 season opener.
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Proven winner ... Stewart will make his 14th-career Nationwide Series start at the Daytona Beach, Fla.-based facility during the DRIVE4COPD 300. Since 2006, the Columbus, Ind., native has held the hardware in Victory Lane on six occasions (February '05,'06, '08-'11). Stewart has also collected seven top-five and nine top-10 finishes with 206 laps led.
In-Race Reporter ... Stewart will be the ESPN in-race reporter for Saturday afternoon's 120-lap event. Rear-tire carrier Brad Robinson will also wear a crew cam during the race to give fans a birds-eye view of a live pit stop.
The Ritz Cracker, a Lucky Token? ... Stewart will attempt to claim his seventh Nationwide Series victory in the annual season opener at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday. Riding shotgun with Stewart will be Nabisco's Ritz Cracker brand, which coincidentally has seven holes in each cracker. In 2010, the buttery-tasting snack was the primary sponsor when Stewart drove to Victory Lane after winning his fourth-consecutive Nationwide Series season-opening event.
2012 Race Rewind ... Stewart was poised to notch his fifth-straight win in the 2012 season-opening Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway, but a last-lap crash while vying for the lead forced him to limp the No. 33 Oreo 100th Birthday/Ritz Crackers Chevrolet across the finish line in eighth place.
TONY STEWART QUOTES:
You have the opportunity to tie Dale Earnhardt for the most wins in the Nationwide Series at Daytona with seven. How special would that be for you?
"It's cool just to be even close to him. Whether we ever get another win and catch his mark or even surpass him, that's still a record that's pretty remarkable here at Daytona. That's a pretty cool feeling to know we've closed in on something he's done here. To me, this was his playground. You just watched him play with the guys here. He was the best at this place. To even be remotely close to him in the record books, in anything here at Daytona, is very humbling."
You've won the season-opening Nationwide Series race six times. How nice is it to start the year with a win, and how much confidence does it give you going into the Daytona 500?
"The good thing is I'm probably the happiest guy going into the Daytona 500 if we get a win on Saturday. It shows that we can win, and it's just a matter of whether the cards play out for you on Sunday. It's always a bonus when you can win on Saturday before going into the biggest race of the year on Sunday. Getting a Nationwide win there, that's how you like to go to bed the night before the Daytona 500, knowing that you've got that trophy sitting out there on your desk from what you did Saturday afternoon."
PaddockTalk Perspective
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