Rudy Giuliani had a sporting day in Florida on Monday, taking a detour from a two-day, eight-stop tour of the state to visit the Daytona International Speedway and ride in his campaign bus down the track.

In a photo op designed to lift his campaign by appealing to fans of one of Florida's key pastimes -- auto racing -- the Giuliani bus, which bears the logo, "Florida is Rudy Country," couldn't hit race speeds but moved as fast as possible without tipping over onto the banked track.

The imagery offered a potentially unfortunate metaphor for the campaign, which is banking on Florida to keep Giuliani's campaign aloft. But asked whether the single lap around the track was symbolic of his campaign, Giuliani responded cheerfully.

"I think it's a symbolism of our lapping Florida. We're lapping around Florida -- and we want to lap our opponents if we can," he said.

No one was in the stands at the track, but Giuliani, in suit and tie, mingled with a couple of dozen drivers and crew members, repeatedly asking if he could drive one of the race cars.

"We're changing the schedule -- we're going to drive around all day," he said as he walked among the stock cars and their keepers.

Nearly all the race participants were from out of state but in town to run tests for the upcoming Camping World 300 race, according to Eddie D'Hondt, a 21-year-old crew member from Charlotte, N.C.

Click here to see Giuliani urging NASCAR officials to let him drive a race car.

D'Hondt plans to vote for Giuliani, but North Carolina's primary isn't until May 6, and that could be too late for Giuliani, who needs a Sunshine State victory to be viable in a national contest.

The detour to the track was just one of the sports-themed images in which Giuliani immersed himself Monday. Earlier in the day, New York Yankees slugger Johnny Damon pitched one for Giuliani, endorsing the former New York City mayor at an event in Orlando, Fla.

"He made New York closer. He made America closer, and he's going to make this country a better place. America's mayor, the next president of the United States, Rudy Giuliani," Damon said, introducing the candidate.

Giuliani has foresaken other states to spend all his time in Florida in an effort to win the Jan. 29 GOP primary there and give his campaign a morale boost.

The unorthodox strategy -- marked by his skipping the early primary states and focusing on Florida's primary and Super Tuesday, Feb. 5 -- has left Giuliani vulnerable. A Rasmussen poll of 754 likely Republican voters in Florida shows Mitt Romney ahead of John McCain 25 to 20 percent and Giuliani at 19 percent. A RealClearPolitics average of polling in Florida puts McCain at 23.3 percent compared to Giuliani at 20 percent, Mitt Romney close behind at 19.3 percent and Mike Huckabee at 16 percent. Fred Thompson lags at 8.3 percent and Ron Paul is averaging 5.5 percent in the polls.

Despite the numbers, the Giuliani campaign isn't about to throw in the towel. Riding the sports theme, Giuliani campaign adviser Rep. David Dreier told FOX News on Monday that Giuliani's methodology has already proven successful.

The candidate went against the odds and predicted a three-point win by the New York Giants over the Green Bay Packers in Sunday's NFC championship.

"Guess what happened? The exact same thing," said Dreier of California.

Drier then predicted that Giuliani's insight could take him all the way, and pointed to the former New York mayor's plan to simplify the tax system and reduce the number of income tax brackets from six to three.

"He's been doing this in an unconventional way, but he's been doing it by focusing on what it is that voters in Florida and across the country are concerned about, and that is the economy, making sure that we get this economy going," Dreier told FOX News.

Dreier also said that he thinks Giuliani's heavy presence in Florida will serve the candidate well on Election Day.

"The people of Florida have appreciated the attention that he has shown here, and the response has been extraordinary. ... They understand that this guy, who can get things done, fix New York and can do the same thing for the country, is what Florida needs as well," Dreier said.

Candidates Seek to Edge Out Giuliani in Florida

Even with the detour to the Daytona speedway, it isn't all fun and games for Giuliani. His campaign is setting out "quite sharp" policy differences to distinguish himself from his GOP rivals and show he is not languishing, a defense necessary in the face of dipping polls in New York state, where McCain is now leading the pack. Both the Siena College poll and WNBC/Marist poll show McCain leading Giuliani in New York by 12 and 11 points respectively.

Giuliani said all is going according to plan and he is focused on Florida for now. He added that each of his opponents -- McCain, Romney and Huckabee -- has a good argument for the presidency, and "all would make a better president than any of the Democratic presidential candidates."

But as he spoke sweetly about his opponents' characters, he noted that he has the best experience, boldest tax plan and is "by far" the strongest fiscal conservative.

"McCain sided with the Democrats and voted against the Bush tax cuts. Mitt Romney was equivocal in his support for the Bush tax cuts. The reality is I supported the Bush tax cuts because they reminded me very much of my own tax cuts," he said.

In response, McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said, "It's not surprising to see the Giuliani campaign launch misleading attacks on a day when two new polls show John McCain beating Rudy Giuliani decisively in his home state of New York. ... Rudy Giuliani has a record of opposing tax relief. He actually endorsed liberal Democrat Mario Cuomo for governor because he opposed George Pataki’s tax cut plans, which Giuliani said at the time were too large. He also left Mayor Bloomberg with a fiscal mess, including a budget deficit of over $2 billion. That’s not fiscal responsibility."

Out on the trail, McCain, who campaigned Monday in Miami with military veterans, is hoping to ride his South Carolina victory wave through to Giuliani's Florida firewall. McCain and Romney have five wins between them. Huckabee has won one. All are hoping Florida will help break them out of the pack.

Romney, who motored around in his Mitt Mobile, is withholding running attack ads in Florida as he did in earlier primary states. Instead, he is echoing the pro-growth approach to the economy that helped him win in Michigan

"I want to see our economy growing, hiring people, because if people are hired in good jobs then they pay more taxes and that helps the government, and of course that helps individuals as well.

Meanwhile, Huckabee's is hoping to climb a steep hill in Florida after his first place win in Iowa and second place showing in South Carolina.

"We plan on having a very exciting time here in florida. We know where we are but we also want to make everybody know that we plan no Mickey Mouse operation in Florida," Huckabee told supporters in Orlando.

Huckabee hit McCain on Sunday when celebrity endorser and crowd-pleasing sidekick Chuck Norris questioned the 71- year-old McCain's vigor.

McCain let out a big sigh in response to the claims that he is too old to be president, responding that he is "afraid that I may have to send my 95-year-old mother over and wash Chuck's mouth out with soap, thank you very much."

As the candidates vie for the Florida win, Giuliani has one more at-bat that he hopes will appeal to Floridians. He backs a popular plan in the hurricane-plagued state to create national catastrophe insurance. Legislation pending in Congress would create a federally backed consortium of states to pool catastrophe risk.

McCain opposes it, putting himself at odds with Giuliani and the state's popular governor, Charlie Crist, who advanced the plan and has endorsed no candidate so far.

"I believe that this nation and federal government has an obligation to help out in any tragedy or natural disaster," McCain said during a roundtable discussion. McCain said: "I do not support a national catastrophic insurance policy. That insurance policy is there, and it's called FEMA, and it's called disaster preparedness and it's called addressing disasters."

Nevertheless, McCain questioned the Federal Emergency Management Agency's ability to respond to disasters. "I still do not have confidence that FEMA is capable of handling all of those responsibilities."

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, Giuliani's state chairman, said McCain is "out of touch" with Florida voters for opposing such a plan.

FOX News' Carl Cameron, Mosheh Oinounou and The Associated Press contributed to this report.