Tony Stewart took some of the time during his Tuesday press conference to eliminate the suggestion he had inadvertently “screwed” Ryan Newman as the Stewart-Haas Racing team prepares to add a fourth car for Kurt Busch in 2014.
The timing of when the fourth car came together, led by Stewart’s partner Gene Haas, was what led to the Busch signing.
“When we had the press conference at Loudon, where we were at is what we said,” Stewart explained. “I was disappointed to hear Kyle Petty say we deceived Ryan – that was the word – that we deceived him. He (Haas) addressed this last week at a Chevy dinner in Indy. That’s when it started.
“As it progressed, Gene’s not used to having partners. He’s a big success in the CNC industry as a one-man show. Going through the process, he didn’t think until talking to me about it as it progressed. Granted I was in the hospital, so that’s why he didn’t talk sooner.
“My only concern was the sponsorship about it and building a team in that time frame. We know Kurt can go out, be fast, and possibly win the race every week. But I had no idea he had this in mind for 2014 until three Mondays ago.
“As far as how it would look, to Ryan, I think Gene addressed it, he came up with it and made the decision to make a change. We’re partners in this, Gene wanted the change and I wanted to go with it. I was really 100 percent behind it, but concerned about the time frame. There was never one argument between us. I just expressed my concern about the timing.”
Stewart then unintentionally spilled the beans about another part of the SHR program coming together for 2014, Rodney Childers joining as Kevin Harvick’s crew chief for the No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet.
“Well, we’ve got a crew chief. I think he will dictate the crewmembers. I think Zippy’s in tune with the details of accommodating the fourth team. But that’s more a question for Zippy in terms of what will it take to do it. He can’t wait for me to get healed up to beat the crap out of me for putting him in this position.”
Stewart says he, Harvick and Busch are all in the “growing up process.”
“It’s been inevitable that all three of us are going to start growing up,” Stewart said. “I’m not sure all three have completed the process yet. But we’ve made huge gains in that area. For Kurt it’s a new organization. Kevin and I have raced with each other. Kurt and I haven’t had chance to work together. But now we’ll have him and Kevin as a support system. That’s something that’ll help them come into the organization.”
It will be interesting to see how they all gel as a group, as three alpha males with Danica Patrick as the fourth member of the team.