NASCAR legend Tony Stewart issues brutally honest Daytona 500 verdict

NASCAR legend Tony Stewart has offered a brutally honest verdict on the state of the Daytona 500.

Stewart is deeply entrenched in the NASCAR world, not only as a three-time Cup Series champion but also as the former team owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, where he won his 2011 title as a driver/owner.

The team closed down its NASCAR operations at the end of the 2024 season, but Stewart remains opinionated about the series, as evidenced by his latest thoughts on the Daytona race

“When it comes to Daytona now, and man, I’m going to get crucified by a lot of people for this. In my eyes, it doesn't mean the same now as it did 15, 20 years ago," Stewart said on the Rubbin is Racing podcast.

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Stewart: 'Anyone' can win Daytona 500

Stewart continued: "Anybody can win. I mean, you look at some of the guys that won the Daytona 500. I don’t want to go into the list of guys because they’re guys that I do respect and have friendships with, but they’re not guys that should’ve won the Daytona 500."

“And they won the Daytona 500, and that’s all they’ve won. They may have won one or two other races outside of that. I won 49 Cup races. Jeff Gordon won [93] Cup races. Richard Petty won 200 Cup races.

"Anybody in the field can win the Daytona 500 now.”

Stewart himself was never victorious in NASCAR's crown jewel event, with the 53-year-old's best result at the Daytona 500 coming in 2004, where he finished second behind Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Despite that, he is adamant he would not swap any of his championships for a Daytona 500 victory.

"No, absolutely not," Stewart said when asked that question. "No way. I wouldn't trade a championship for three Daytona 500 trophies."

Stewart ultimately concluded: "Even though I don't feel like it carries as much weight as it used to, it still carries the weight because it's still the Daytona 500."

"It is still the marquee event on the NASCAR schedule. It still has that rich history.

“But the cars have got so equal, and you look at guys that are winning some of these, they're not the ones that led the most laps.

"They're not the ones that were up front. They were the guy that was second or third or fourth when the last lap crash happened and NASCAR hit the button to freeze the field.”

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