Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman Team Effort For 2009 Leave Many Cautiously Optimistic

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By Deb Williams

BROOKLYN, Mich. (Aug. 15, 2008) – Two hard-nosed racers joined forces for 2009 with Friday's announcement that Ryan Newman would move to Tony Stewart's team -- Stewart-Haas Racing – and the interesting combination left many in the garage cautiously optimistic.

Opinions ranged from those who thought the two Hoosiers would have a successful relationship to those who believed they would undergo growing pains with the Concord, N.C.-based team. Many agreed Newman was the harder of the two to pass on the track, but the two men, who sometimes competed against each other in their open-wheel days, possessed a tremendous amount of respect and understanding for one another.

“I think those two together will do exactly what that team needs,” two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson said. “Ryan is great at qualifying; they are obviously going to need that. They are both great at points racing. Now as teammates in a sense, hopefully, they are able to make it through all the weather issues the first five races and get those two cars where they need to be.

“I think it was a wise move on Tony’s behalf. Very stable environment over there, very stable group of drivers. You have Matt Borland and Ryan potentially back together, if not back together. I think they are making smart decisions.”

Borland, the vice president of competition for Stewart-Haas Racing, was Newman's crew chief at Penske Racing from 2000-2006. During their tenure together, Newman won rookie honors in the Cup series, the all-star race, and produced the most prolific sophomore season since 1980 when the late Dale Earnhardt won his first series title. However, the team stagnated and Penske released Borland at the end of the 2006 season.

“Both drivers have obligations through the end of this year to finish up strongly, plus Haas,” Johnson said. “Then those guys need to somehow gel during our short off-season and come together and be ready. So they have a lot of work ahead of themselves, but I think you have professionals across the board over there and they will do a good job.”

Richard Childress Racing driver Kevin Harvick agreed with Johnson.

“Ryan is obviously a friend of mine and Tony is a good friend of mine, so it's neat to see them come together, especially with similar backgrounds and having a lot of the same interests,” Harvick said. “I think it will be a good combination with Ryan getting in there and being able to give his opinion and help Tony. I think he is someone that Tony will listen to and value his opinion. It's interesting to watch it take place, because we’ve done that with our Nationwide teams and truck series teams and put it all together.”

Denny Hamlin, a teammate of Stewart's this year at Joe Gibbs Racing, said he thought Stewart and Newman would make a “great team.”

“They’re really two of a kind to tell you the truth,” Hamlin continued. “I think that’s why you’ve seen in the past those guys race each other so hard. They’re from the same area. They’re good friends and they have a lot of the same interests.”

Stewart has participated in Newman's charity fishing tournament, while Newman enjoys driving dirt tracks and always competes in Stewart's “Prelude to the Dream” at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. Both also enjoy the outdoors.

Roush Fenway Racing driver Greg Biffle also thought Newman and Stewart would be a “good combination.”

“They’ve both proved on the race track and in the garage area that they’re competitive guys and competitive drivers and can get their race cars figured out,” Biffle continued. “Ryan is a heck of a qualifier and racer, and so is Tony. They’ll both bring a lot of information to the table, I think, and they’ll both bring a lot of good people, and being in the equipment that they’re gonna be in – with Hendrick power and chassis and information and what-not – I think they’re gonna be in great shape. I think they’ll run really well.”

Gillett Evernham Motorsports driver Kasey Kahne equated the Newman-Stewart combination to the Johnson-Jeff Gordon duo at Hendrick Motorsports.

“When you’ve won, you have certain ideas for what you need at certain race tracks,” Kahne said. “That’s a good thing with Ryan and Tony, they both have those feelings to be able to help each other, help the team, and make things better quicker over there. Those two as teammates is no different than Jimmie (Johnson) and Jeff (Gordon) as teammates. They’ll work together. They’ve won races. They know what they want and it will make that team better quicker by having two good drivers that have won races.”

Still, racing is strictly peaks and valleys, and the team's valley could be a rather lengthy one in the beginning.

“The hardest part of starting a new team is usually you come out of the box good, but it's when you get into the summer months and you start crashing cars and things start going wrong. It's how you rebound from that,” Harvick said. “I will say they'll come out of the gate strong because they'll have a lot of time to prepare and get things situated, but the character-builders come in the middle of the year.”

Kyle Busch, the standings' leader and Stewart's teammate this season, believes it will “take some time to build that organization to where Tony might want to see it in a few years.”

“Realistically, I think there's going to be some growing pains,” Busch continued. “I think that they’ve got to build up their relationships with their crew chiefs and build up whoever those guys are going to be and get that organization to where it’s running a little bit better. I don’t foresee just putting a driver in that car and making it perform way better. I think that they’re a little bit behind and we’ll have to find out.”

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