Tony Stewart finished seventh in last year's Daytona 500. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

Stewart expects business as usual in '06

Defending champ says winning Daytona 500 high on his list of goals

If you're expecting Tony Stewart to have a fresh, new plan for defending his Nextel Cup Series championship this year, you're out of luck.

"A season's still a season," Stewart said. "We're not reinventing the wheel from one year to the next. We're starting this year with the same attitude we started with last year and the year before and all seven years that we've been doing this."

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So far, so good for the Stewart bunch. In his seven-year NASCAR career, Stewart has collected 24 wins and 149 top-10 finishes in 248 starts, good enough to secure a pair of Cup titles.

However, if there is one place where Stewart admits he can improve in 2006, it's in the early part of the season. Even in last year's championship campaign, Stewart had three finishes of 26th or worse in his first eight races.

It's a trend that has the normally quick-witted Stewart -- and his team -- baffled.

"Honestly, if I knew why we have a slow start, I'd fix it every year," Stewart said. "The first third of the season always seems to be our weak point. I don't have a good answer. Zippy [crew chief Greg Zipadelli] doesn't have a good answer.

"The good thing is the points are won in the last 10 weeks, not the first 10."

Don't let the early-season stats fool you, however. While Stewart has yet to win the Daytona 500, he's been close recently. He led 97 laps in 2004 and finished second to Dale Earnhardt Jr. Last year, he led 107 laps and finished seventh to Jeff Gordon. As the 2006 date approaches, it's certainly circled on Stewart's calendar.

"Our number one goal this year is to go win the Daytona 500," Stewart said. "We've led enough laps the last two years combined to win the race outright. Obviously our run in July there was something that was pretty special to us. And obviously with it being the biggest race on the schedule for the year, that's our number one goal."

But certainly not the only goal.

"You never stop wanting to win races," Stewart said. "Obviously, I'm going to want to come to Indianapolis and try to win the Brickyard back-to-back. I love being the guy that does things first. I would love to be the first guy to win the Brickyard back-to-back, and we want to win another championship.

"Those goals never go away once you accomplish them, they never stop. Even though we had a great year last year, you always want to win more races, win more poles, set new records and continue hot streaks. So that stuff will continue."

Coming into the season as the defending champion also crowns you as a bit of a leader in the garage, a role Stewart is quick to shy away from.

"I don't really know what we need a leader for down there necessarily," Stewart said. "But I would say the closest person to a leader that we have is probably Jeff Gordon, in all reality. He's probably the best representative we have for our sport as far as how to deal with the media, how to deal with the race fans, the sanctioning body.

"And I think he learned a lot of that from Dale Earnhardt, who was the leader pretty much of the group.

"I would prefer not to be that person. I mean, it's hard enough just to do the jobs that we have to do, let alone have that responsibility of having to feel like you're responsible for everybody there."