A Year In Review: Stewart-Haas Racing
By John Harlow
Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports
No. 14 Tony Stewart
The team was behind the 8-ball to start the season due to Stewart’s sprint car accident in Iowa in 2013. He was unable to get in a car and test with new crew chief Chad Johnston. The three-time champion spent most of the season as a mid-pack driver with only three top-5’s and seven top-10’s on the season. Add in the tragedy surrounding the accident in New York that took the life of Kevin Ward Jr., and Stewart’s only highlight in 2014 was in victory lane Sunday celebrating Harvick’s championship.
The leg injury kept Stewart from being 100 percent for the early months of the 2014 season and before he could develop a rhythm the accident in New York happened. Coming into 2014 Stewart had won a race in each of his previous 15 NASCAR Sprint Cup seasons, that streak came to an end at Homestead just three seasons short of tying Richard Petty who had 18. However, Stewart did win a Sprint race in 2014 which means that Stewart has won some sort of race in each of the 36 years that he has been racing.