Uphill Climb for 2015 Season Comeback Now Steeper for Tony Stewart After Daytona

Tony Stewart came into 2015 hoping to put the bad memories of the last two seasons behind him.

Expectations were high, not just from Stewart and the Stewart-Haas Racing camp, but also his fans and the media.

He came into Sunday’s race hoping to finally snap one of the most frustrating voids in his racing career, the inability to win the Daytona 500.

He didn’t want to become this generation’s version of the late Dale Earnhardt, who needed 20 starts before finally capturing his first—and ultimately only—win in The Great American Race.

Unfortunately, for the 17th straight year, Stewart came into and left Daytona in the same fashion: still without that prized Harley J. Earl Daytona 500 winner’s trophy.

As a quick aside, there’s some irony in the fact that in 1999, Stewart raced in his very first Daytona 500 and began his current oh-fer streak one year after Earnhardt finally ended his.

What happened in Sunday’s race was an uncharacteristic mistake by Stewart. He tried to push things a bit more than he might typically do, perhaps so eager to put 2013 and 2014 in his rearview mirror once and for all.

The end result was equally uncharacteristic, losing control of his car, bouncing off the car of Ryan Blaney and collecting the cars of Matt Kenseth and Michael Waltrip in the process.

While Blaney and Waltrip were able to continue (at least until Blaney’s engine blew up later in the race), Kenseth and Stewart weren’t as fortunate.

Kenseth finished 35th, one lap behind the leaders. But Stewart finished much worse.

Now, after a 42nd-place finish at Daytona, Stewart isn’t just back to where he was when Speedweeks began; he’s actually regressed and is further behind where he wants to be in his optimistic bounce-back in 2015.

Is it a cause for concern?

On the surface, to some the answer may be yes. After all, this is the infamous Smoke we’re talking about, the three-time Sprint Cup champion, the two-time Brickyard 400 winner and the 1997 IRL champ.

A guy like that just doesn’t make the kind of mistakes that he did Sunday, many might say.

Others might say that after what he’s gone through the last two seasons, maybe Stewart has lost some of his immense talent, that maybe he’s lost a step or two—or even three.

Some might even go so far as to say that Stewart, who at 43 is the same age as Jeff Gordon, might also want to consider retirement.

I disagree.

Sure, Stewart is not where he wanted to be upon leaving Daytona. Someone doesn’t just lose his driving skills and talent, even with the issues he’s gone through the last two years.

But might Stewart’s problem on Lap 42 Sunday come down to nothing more than a simple mistake?

Might Stewart, after the last two years, have been so bound and determined to do so well and have such a great career restart that he inadvertently zigged when he should have zagged?

Stewart even admitted so on the team radio immediately after wrecking his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.

“Sorry guys, I let the front end get away from me,” Stewart said.

Stewart was fighting a tight race car at the time and tried to corral it back in like a cowboy roping a wayward calf. It’s a move he’s probably made thousands of times in his racing career.

This time, for whatever reason, the move Stewart made didn’t work, and he wound up having his day ruined.

“As long as we were two-wide, I was ok,” Stewart said in his team’s post-race media release. “But then when it got three-wide, on that particular lap it got away from me. I got out of the gas and couldn’t even get the front end caught up.”

Consider what Mark Long of The Associated Press had to say about Stewart after Sunday's race:

"

(Stewart) showed up at Daytona with a bounce in his step — feeling more confident than cursed — and no one would have been surprised to see him end the streak.

“To be a driver that can cross off one of those marquee events as a winner, that cements your legacy in motorsports,” Stewart said last week. “To be able to win the Daytona 500 is the ultimate dream of a race car driver.”

His quest will have to wait at least another year.

"

Let’s keep some things in perspective, as well.

Sunday was the first race of the season. There are still 35 more races left for Stewart to rebound.

Sunday also marked the first full race of cars that have not had any offseason testing, yet they are performing with about 100 less horsepower and a different aerodynamic package as last season.

Sunday was also a race held on one of the most unpredictable race tracks on the Sprint Cup circuit, further compounded by the fact that the 500 is one of four races each season that is contested with restrictor plates that limit what a driver can or can’t do.

It’s easy to blast Stewart, to say he’s lost his edge, to think it’s time to retire.

Again, I disagree.

We all mistakes, and Tony Stewart made a mistake Sunday.

A very costly mistake. Sure, he’s 36th in the standings and, being the equivalent of the number of points he’d earn for a win in a single race—45 points—has a longer way to come back than he did heading into Sunday.

That’s obvious.

Admittedly, he'll have to double down on his efforts going forward because he can't afford another race like Daytona in the upcoming races, starting with Atlanta this coming Sunday.

If it's a mechanical issue, his team will also have to double down on its efforts to give him the absolute best car it can provide, as well as give him flawless pit stops and service to the car.

And if Stewart does continue to struggle and watches as his bounce-back climb falls back even further, he won't need fans or the media to tell him. If he truly has lost a few steps or his reflexes have started to slow, he'll be the first to know it.

But I’m not ready to say he’s done or washed up, not by a long shot. He could very easily bounce back next Sunday and win at Atlanta.

And then watch how quickly fans or media that might have said “he’s done” after what happened Sunday suddenly change their tune and say, “Tony’s back. I never had any doubt.”

Tony Stewart quotes used in this column were from an official Stewart-Haas Racing post-race media release.

Follow me on Twitter @JerryBonkowski