Can a driver be great and not win 500?

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.

In his 14th season, NASCAR’s reigning champion will have more chances to finally win this race. But never a better one.

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Can you be a great American driver without winning the Great American Race?

The career of Tony Stewart — 44 wins, three Cup championships — suggests you can. That’s not to say, however, he’s without regret.

He’s constantly reminded what he hasn’t won and fully aware of what he should have.

“I know he wants to win it as bad as he’s wanted to win anything,” said Greg Zipadelli, Stewart’s longtime crew chief at Joe Gibbs Racing. “The opportunities that we had in the first 10 years, we could have won three or four of them. I mean, easily. Things didn’t go our way. We got wrecked. We blew up. Whatever. We had really good, strong race cars.”

Stewart has won here — 17 times, all told, including in the Nationwide Series. But he’s never won the 500. He’s been second, third and fifth. He’s finished in the top 10 in six of the 13 times he’s run it. He’s led for 297 laps.

“He’ll get his sooner or later,” said Zipadelli.

Dale Earnhardt Sr. didn’t win a 500 until his 20th try. He was 46. Stewart is 41. In other words, this might be the only sport in which time — as measured by decades — can be an ally.

Just the same, Stewart finds himself at a point in his career where the conversation concerns his legacy. Eight of the nine Cup drivers inducted into NASCAR’s still-young Hall of Fame won the Daytona 500, a total of 19 times. The sport’s three most accomplished active drivers have won the Harley J. Earl trophy four times. Jimmie Johnson has one. Jeff Gordon has three. Stewart, none.

“It’s the one feather he doesn’t have in his cap,” said Steve Addington, who, at 47, is in his first year as Stewart’s crew chief and also looking for his first Daytona 500 victory. “He knows he’s run good and won races here. He just hasn’t won the 500. That’s why he feels pretty good about the car we have here.”

It’s why he barely drove it Friday, making just 14 practice laps in his Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet. “Don’t want to take any chances tearing up our race car,” said Addington. “I just feel really good about the speed we have in this car and the drivability.”

Winning Daytona is a long shot any given year. Still, it would be difficult to find a crew more optimistic about its chances than Stewart’s. He won five races last year during the 10-week Chase for the Sprint Cup. He finished second last Saturday in the Budweiser Shootout and first Thursday in Gatorade Duel 1. He has his own team now. He has Hendrick engines, acknowledged as the best in the business. He has as much experience and savvy as anyone in the game. In other words, as it pertains to the Daytona 500, Tony Stewart has everything but an excuse.

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Even Zipadelli, now Stewart-Hass Racing’s director of competition, is quick to admit that Stewart is a better driver now than he was when they were almost winning this race. “He’s learned a lot over the years,” said Zipadelli. “You saw it in the Shootout; how he was patient and laid back and rode the middle. He had a car that was capable of staying up front and staying out of trouble, and he did that . . . His confidence has got to be at an all-time high.”

Confidence, contentment, it’s all the same thing, no?

“You win a championship and you kick everybody’s ass the last 10 weeks of the season,” said Zipadelli. “If you show up and you’re not happy, well, I don’t know what’s gonna make you happy.”

Zipadelli has been working with Stewart since they joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 1999. If Stewart now seems a kinder, gentler and happier version of himself, it’s only because he’s winning.

“Let’s hope we can keep him like that all year,” said Zipadelli.