Tony Stewart: 'A lot of change' coming to No. 14 team for 2016
It's safe to say that no driver in the Sprint Cup Series is more eager for the 2015 season to conclude than Tony Stewart.
With 35 races in the books and only Sunday's finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway remaining, Stewart has recorded just three top 10s to go along with nary a top-five finish.
On top of those woeful numbers, the three-time Sprint Cup Series champion has led just 24 laps all year and sits 28th in the standings -- worst among the four Stewart-Haas Racing drivers.
Stewart, who is both a driver and co-owner for SHR, announced in late September that 2016 -- his 18th season in NASCAR's top division -- will be his last.
But when the legendary driver rides off into the sunset, he desperately wants to do so on a strong note, much like fellow champion Jeff Gordon has done this year in winning a race, running consistently solid and making the Championship 4 for this weekend's winner-take-all showdown in South Florida.
"You pray and you hope and you dream of having a season like Jeff has had where you come into the last race of your career and you hopefully have an opportunity to race for a championship," Stewart told a scrum of reporters during Thursday's Championship 4 media day in Hollywood, Florida.
In an effort to go out on top, or at least somewhere closer to it, it sounds as though Stewart's No. 14 team now led by crew chief Chad Johnston is bound for a significant revamping in the off-season.
"There's going to be a lot of change," Stewart said. "It's not like we were a 15th-place car all year. We haven't been even close to that, unfortunately. There's going to have to be a lot of changes. The hard part is when you get back where we're at right now, it's hard to sit there and say exactly what you need, because if it was that easy, you'd have fixed it by now, which makes it even more difficult to sit here and to be honest and tell you what we know needs to be changed.
"That's the hard part is trying to find those variables that we need to work through to get better next year."
While Stewart didn't offer any specifics on the changes forthcoming, a new crew chief for 2016 seems almost certain. Since Johnston replaced veteran Steve Addington ahead of the 2014 season, Stewart has not been to Victory Lane and boasts only three top-five finishes, which all came last year.
Stewart admitted Thursday that there's a "sense of urgency" to turn his program around, in light of his impending retirement from the Sprint Cup Series.
"We're definitely going to work hard this winter to try to fix it, more so to try to identify what the problem was," Stewart said, "and once we can identify what the problem is, then it's a little easier to identify what the solutions are."
While SHR drivers Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch both made the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and have combined for five wins this season, Stewart and teammate Danica Patrick -- who is 24th in points -- have lagged far behind the two leading SHR cars.
Like Stewart, Patrick has not placed in the top five even once.
"I'm very comfortable with two of the cars and their performance," Stewart said, referring to Harvick and Busch. "I feel like Danica and I both need to step up next year. But to be able to say out of a four-car organization, you've got two guys where you want them, that's half the battle right there."
Despite knowing that it sometimes takes significant time for drivers to gel with new team members -- and that he has just one season left -- Stewart is adamant about the need for change.
"Whatever happens this winter, we have to take what we've got," he said. "We have to take what we end up starting the season with, and we've got to make the best out of it all year. You know, at the end of the season, if it's not the way we want it and we gave everything we could, it doesn't mean you're going to be happy about it, but at least you don't feel like you left anything on the table. We'll do everything we can in our power."
