Tony Stewart says winning Daytona 500 means less now

• NASCAR legend Tony Stewart believes recent Daytona 500 wins hold less significance than those of the past.

Do the recent Daytona 500 victories of drivers like Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Cindric and Michael McDowell mean less than those of yesteryear? One NASCAR legend thinks so.

OK, so Tony Stewart didn’t name names. He made a point not to. But Stewart thinks winning the Great American Race has lost some of its luster.

He fired off his thoughts on the Rubbin is Racing podcast this week.

“When it comes to Daytona now — and man, I’m going to get crucified by a lot of people for this,” Stewart said, knowing he was stepping onto sacred racing ground. “In my eyes, it doesn’t mean the same now as it did 15, 20 years ago. Anybody can win. 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 I do respect and have friendships with, but they’re not guys who should’ve won the Daytona 500.

“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.”

Despite compiling those 49 victories and three Cup Series championships between 1999 and 2016, Stewart never captured a Harley J. Earl Trophy. His best finish in the Daytona 500 was second in 2004. He also placed fifth in 2008.

He did claim the summer race at Daytona International Speedway on four occasions.

Stewart admitted he’d trade a few victories from his career for a Daytona 500 win. But the 53-year-old said he would not exchange a Cup Series title for a Daytona 500. He wouldn’t even swap a championship for three Daytona 500 triumphs.

“Even though I don’t l feel like it carries as much weight as it used to, it still carries the weight because it’s still the Daytona 500,” Stewart said. “It’s still the marquee event on the NASCAR schedule. It still has that rich history.

“But the cars have gotten 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.”