A Year In Review: Stewart-Haas Racing
By John Harlow
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
No. 10 Danica Patrick
In her second full-time season in Sprint Cup competition, the expectations were there for growth for Patrick’s team. She finished the season 28th in points and with a different crew chief. During the chase, Tony Gibson moved to the No. 41 team with Kurt Busch and Patrick was teamed with Daniel Knost. Patrick continued her season long struggles with Knost on top of the pit box and may be in line for a new crew chief in 2015.
Patrick’s 28th place finish in the point standings was one spot worse than where she finished in 2013. While Patrick didn’t make leaps and bounds in 2014, she did make progress. Patrick was consistently faster this season than she was last season. Patrick scored her best finish in 2014 while posting three top-10 finishes as compared to one in 2013. Also, Patrick improved her average starting position in 2014 by nearly eight positions and she improved her average finishing position by almost three positions. Patrick also had seven more lead-lap finishes in 2014 than she did in 2013.