Will Stewart-Haas Racing start a trend in NASCAR?

By Mike Smith (contact)

Monday, June 8, 2009 | 7:37 p.m.

Where there’s Smoke there’s success. There has been no learning curve for Stewart-Haas Racing as Tony Stewart has visited victory lane faster than anyone expected.

Does this mean that we may see a resurgence of the owner-driver teams in the sport? I doubt it, especially in this economic environment. And I think it would be hard for anyone contemplating following in Stewart’s footsteps to reach his level of success.

Stewart has put together a unique racing foundation that includes many pieces, all of which fit together perfectly to complete the Stewart-Haas puzzle. In addition to Stewart’s immense talent, he has benefited from taking over a team that already had a racing infrastructure in place, he has solid support from Chevrolet, he has engines from Hendrick Motorsports, he has benefited from years of watching Joe Gibbs masterfully build an organization with the right people, and he has a top-flight teammate in Ryan Newman. It would be highly unusual for another owner-driver to replicate an environment like this one. Just ask Jeremy Mayfield or Robby Gordon.

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You’ve seen the video and you’ve read the reactions to Kyle Busch’s guitar-smashing victory lane antics at Saturday’s Nationwide Series race. I think fan reaction has been partisan. Busch detractors have given him a tongue lashing in the chat rooms and the Busch supporters are left wondering what all the fuss is about.

Sam Bass, the artist whose work covered the guitar, played down the controversy. But I have to believe that he didn’t appreciate seeing his artwork handled so crudely. And Busch went into damage control mode after his tacky display by offering to buy two more copies of the guitar. He also offered the cockamamie excuse that he wanted to break the trophy into pieces that he could share with his teammates. The fact that everyone became so concerned with political correctness shortly after the event signals that everyone involved knew there would be negative reaction to Busch’s behavior.

I also wonder what the people in the corporate boardroom of his sponsor think of Busch’s circus act?

Ultimately, I can’t get too worked up about Busch’s behavior. I guess this is what I have come to expect from him. Yes, he’s tacky and he constantly puts his foot in his mouth, but this is the role he has chosen and he seems to be comfortable with it. And he certainly isn’t boring. Frankly, when it comes to driver behavior, I’m more concerned about Jeremy Mayfield’s possible drug use. That is conduct that could actually have an effect on what happens on the track.

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Here is a recent story from the New York Times on Tony Stewart’s season. One of the most interesting comments in the story came from Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president for competition, who said he was not concerned that the relationship between Stewart-Haas and Hendrick Motorsports violates the spirit of NASCAR’s rule that limits each racing organization to no more than four teams.

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