Stewart-Haas not switching back No. 4 and No. 14 pit crews for 2015
The pit crew swap that Stewart-Haas Racing made for the 2014 Chase will continue into 2015.
Tony Stewart said Tuesday that Kevin Harvick would keep the pit crew that started 2014 as Stewart’s crew and Stewart would keep the pit crew he ended the season with. Before the Chase began, SHR moved Harvick’s crew to Stewart’s team and Stewart’s crew to Harvick’s team.
It helped pay off with a Sprint Cup Series championship for Harvick.
“The pit crew I had that pitted Kevin’s car at the end of the year, we kept that switch permanent for this year,” Stewart told NASCAR.com.
“There really wasn’t that much difference in terms of their times on paper, it was within a tenth of a second. We just felt like that chemistry worked really well.
“I really liked my guys at the end of the year, and I’ll miss having my full-time guys with me, but I think we’re all comfortable with the change and look at it as we all work under the same roof and we’re all one team.”
The switch was made because Stewart was out of the Chase and Harvick had some pit road issues earlier in the year that cost him better finishes. Before the Chase began, Harvick said the team needed to fix pit road before it was able to contend for a championship. We’re pretty confident that happened.
It was the first of two major trades for Stewart-Haas at the end of the 2014 season. With three races to go, the organization swapped the No. 10 team of Danica Patrick and the No. 41 team of Kurt Busch, meaning the drivers worked with different crew chiefs and crews.
Daniel Knost, who started the season as Busch’s crew chief and finished the season as Patrick’s, will continue as her crew chief in 2015. Tony Gibson signed an extension with Stewart-Haas in 2014 and he’ll continue to be Kurt Busch’s crew chief in 2015. In their three races together in 2014, Busch qualified for each race in the top 10 and finished each race in the top 11.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
