Stewart-Haas Racing ‘all in’ to improve Tony Stewart’s performance

As Kevin Harvick surged to victory Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a frustrated Tony Stewart struggled just to be competitive, ultimately finishing five laps behind.

That dichotomy continues an early-season theme within Stewart-Haas Racing, where Harvick has excelled through three races while Stewart has continually lagged. Along with a victory, Harvick has a pair of runner-ups whereas Stewart has finished 42nd, 30th and 33rd.

It would seem a solution is for Stewart to use the same chassis setup as Harvick, who has three wins and three seconds in the past six Sprint Cup races dating to last season. But Harvick, the defending series champion, and Stewart have distinctively different approaches behind the wheel.

“So much to do with it is style,” Harvick told reporters Tuesday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in downtown Charlotte, N.C. “A lot of it is just communication between you and your engineers and just everybody being on the same page. If we just put my stuff in Tony’s car, it’d be hard to just say that’s going to fix all the problems.”

In fact, Harvick said none of SHR’s drivers -- which also includes Danica Patrick and Regan Smith (subbing for the suspended Kurt Busch) -- have similar styles. That makes identifying a solution to Stewart’s woes difficult.

“I think everyone is in the analyzing phase of understanding what direction we can go in to help,” Harvick said.

Further complicating matters is the current schedule featuring three consecutive races on the West Coast. SHR did not hold its weekly competition meeting and Harvick and Stewart have not spoken.

“I don’t have a 100 percent answer on exactly what was wrong,” Harvick said. “I haven’t talked to Tony or (SHR competition director Greg) Zipadelli because everybody’s all over the country right now, so it’s kind of hard to communicate.”

What’s played a large part of Harvick’s success is the chemistry he has with crew chief Rodney Childers. Since the two joined SHR last season, they quickly developed a rapport and the byproduct is that the No. 4 car is consistently among the fastest on a near weekly basis.

But Harvick is a bit of a SHR outlier. Busch, Stewart and Patrick all struggled in 2014, with only Busch reaching Victory Lane. This season the performance is much the same. Outside of Harvick, Smith has SHR’s best result, having twice finished 16th.

“As you look at packages and the way (Busch, Stewart and Patrick) we all drive drive, they’re drastically different in throttle traces and steering traces and feels,” Harvick said. “Whether it’s myself Danica or Tony, everybody wants something different in their cars. The biggest thing is we’re fortunate to have going for us is Rodney and I just had so much time to really sit and work on everything and just talk about every little detail before we even went to the racetrack.

“I get in my cars and never have to touch anything or have to move anything. It’s just always perfect. I’m in a fortunate spot. But we’re all-in on trying to figure out exactly what Tony needs and really help him get back to where he needs to be”