Everyone said Tony Stewart was crazy to leave the cosy confines of Joe Gibbs Racing to run his own NASCAR team. A struggling, noncompetitive race team, at that.
Three months into the season, Stewart looks like a genius. Using an extreme makeover on the former Haas CNC Racing organization, Stewart has put together one of the most solid organizations in the Sprint Cup Series and made other drivers believe ownership might actually work.
He’s currently third in the standings, and after a rocky start to the season, teammate Ryan Newman has vaulted 23 spots over the past seven races to 10th in the points. They finished second and fourth, respectively, Saturday night at Richmond and both are currently in contention for berths in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.
It was just over a year ago that Stewart first admitted he was looking at opportunities outside of JGR, his home for all 10 years of his Cup career. He had a year left on his contract, and team owner Joe Gibbs was eager to lock the two-time series champion into an extension that would keep him in the No. 20 until Stewart retired.
Stewart wasted little time putting his stamp all over his new toy. He courted sponsors, hired his own people and changed the mentality to mirror his competitive spirit. Even so, it seemed a stretch that the transformation would lead to immediate success. Maybe someday, but certainly not the first year.
Again, he’s proved otherwise. Stewart has seven top-10s in 10 races, including runner-up finishes in two of the last three races. He lost to Mark Martin three weeks ago in Phoenix, and Kyle Busch on Saturday night in Richmond. The Canadian Press
Stewart’s quest has been equally impressive. In his first year with a new team since his rookie season in 1999, the two-time Cup champ is off to his best start since he was second in the standings after 10 races in 2006. Although he has yet to win, he scored his fourth top five on Saturday and trails championship leader Jeff Gordon by just 39 points.
Certainly, both Newman and Stewart are concerned about performance. But Stewart also shoulders the responsibility of the entire company. After all, his name is on the door.
Following his second-place Richmond finish, Stewart beamed in his post-race interviews, humbly admitting he was “proud of the whole organization.”
“I think Ryan’s fourth-place run was more impressive than our second-place finish,” Stewart said. “I think we backed up into it with the luxury of getting tires towards the end. But still, just to see how good a night Ryan had, I was proud and happy for those guys, just proud for our whole organization.”
Stewart credits his former boss Joe Gibbs with tutoring him on Ownership 101. Gibbs, the competitor, has taken notice.
“Tony’s done a great job, obviously,” Gibbs said. “I think he has some great stuff coming from Hendrick’s. I think he’s got a real good partner there with Ryan. I think he’s done a real good job putting everything together.”
With the momentum the teams are carrying following a successful month, the pundits that questioned Stewart last season could be feting him or Newman at Darlington next weekend — but Stewart’s got bigger goals in mind.
“I would rather have five second-place finishes in a row than I would have a win, a 32nd, an 18th, a 43rd and a seventh,” Stewart said. “That consistency and that momentum of being up front every week and knowing that you have an opportunity to run for the win each night, that momentum carries you into that week-after-week stretch. That’s what you need going into the Chase. You need to have that momentum. You need to have that confidence that goes with the momentum to feel like every day when you go out there you got a shot to win the race.”
Sounds like a champion who knows what it takes to be sitting at the head table come December. FOXsports.com
It would have been easy to assume Tony Stewart had given up his chance at winning races and competing for championships when he left Joe Gibbs Racing after 2008 for a shot at owning a race team. When Stewart accepted an offer of part-ownership in Haas CNC Racing, the two-time Cup champion became an owner-driver of a team that had never won a race before.
Had Stewart walked away from his best shot at winning a third championship?
The most critical piece, of course, is Stewart. Before he accepted the offer to become part-owner of the team beginning in 2009, Haas CNC Racing had just one top-five finish in seven years of Cup competition. But Stewart brought a champion’s high profile to the team, and top sponsorship and personnel followed.
These days, the only question is which Stewart-Haas driver will make it there first. Examiner.com
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