Changes loom as Stewart looks to put stamp on team

In the media center at Chicagoland Speedway, big dreams abounded. Challenging in the Daytona 500, contending for race wins and championships, becoming one of the elite players on the Sprint Cup circuit. But out in the rainy garage area, the unknowns accompanying Tony Stewart's new ownership share of Haas CNC Racing brought a certain degree of anxiety.

Especially in the mind of Scott Riggs, the lone full-time driver for the two-car team. Stewart will drive one of the entries next season for the rechristened Stewart-Haas Racing, with the pilot of the other seat still to be determined. Riggs knows his new team owner has talked to several other drivers, and wonders if and when Stewart will come and talk to him.

"We have enough anxiety on us right now figuring out how to get these cars back in the top 35," said Riggs, referring to the fact that both Haas cars are currently outside the top 35 in owner points. "We think it's going to be positive. Everybody feels it's going to be a positive thing. It's just, how is it going to unfold and how is it going to be? And for me, am I going to be in the seat or am I not? I've come here with the expectation of staying here until we get things worked out and building a strong foundation for the future. The foundation is here. I'd like to be able to see an even quicker growth with Tony coming on board."

There are plenty of decisions still to be made by Stewart, who received 50 percent ownership in the Haas team in return for his talent and reputation. The organization he now co-owns is one that has struggled to find success, recording only one top-five finish in nearly seven years on NASCAR's premier circuit. Change is inevitable, especially if the new entity hopes to contend at the high level envisioned by Stewart and general manager Joe Custer.

"We're committed to our employees, naturally," Custer said. "And we think we have some great employees. But will there be change? Yes. Will there be more people at Stewart-Haas Racing than there are currently? Yes. So we're hiring."

But not likely more than one driver, a fact that has Riggs on edge. Stewart said Thursday that Riggs hadn't been ruled out as the team's second driver, and even praised the job the current Haas CNC pilot has done getting the No. 66 car in races this year. But with more accomplished drivers like Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr. apparently on the market, it's hard for Riggs to feel safe.

"I think there are still a lot of unknowns," he said. "For one thing, I don't think there's any team out there who'd say it's a bad thing to have Tony Stewart come on board as a teammate but also as an owner. It's exciting for everyone. It's something everyone looks at as a positive move in the right direction, not only being able to build the team bigger with more people, but also being able to attract even better people in better positions we can create or need. But at the same time, there is a big question of, what's going to happen, what's going to take place, who's going to be the other driver. There are a lot of questions there. I have no idea."

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When you're inside in my shoes you see the interest in the second car, the crew chief and the engineer and the over the wall crew, just on the second car within a Tony Stewart organization. That's why I believe it will take our organization as a whole to the final large step we need to make.
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JOE CUSTERHow much will the current Haas CNC change in its metamorphosis to Stewart-Haas Racing? Not even Custer knows for sure. There seem to be so many factors working against it -- a history of mediocre finishes, the prospect of both cars starting next season outside the top 35, the fact that team founder Gene Haas (whose Haas Automation company owns the other 50 percent of the team) is serving federal prison time for tax evasion. But the organization's new principals believe all that can be overcome.

"Quite frankly, we're here to win," Custer said, "and we believe Tony can help us do that."

How? By his natural driving ability, of course. But also through his popularity, which the team hopes will attract the major sponsors it has to this point been unable to find. And through his reputation in the Sprint Cup garage area, which the organization believes will help the new team attract personnel -- beyond just a second driver -- that it wouldn't have a chance at hiring otherwise.

"Tony Stewart, it's not just him," Custer said. "He has an impact on the second car that I think is difficult to understand when you're outside the sport. When you're inside in my shoes you see the interest in the second car, the crew chief and the engineer and the over the wall crew, just on the second car within a Tony Stewart organization. That's why I believe it will take our organization as a whole to the final large step we need to make."

Stewart will be the point man on racing personnel hires -- although people from Joe Gibbs Racing, the driver's current home, are off-limits. "He's very good at knowing guys in the garage and building relationships," Custer said. "He's committed himself to these Sprint car teams and USAC teams, and that built credibility within the garage area. Yes, he has a lot of contacts, and I expect him to do what he does, and that's work relationships."

The deal was approved not by Haas, who is scheduled for release in May, but Bob Murray, who manages Haas holdings and is Custer's immediate boss. And Custer sees Haas Automation, a leading maker of machine tools, as the steady, reliable outside revenue stream other Sprint Cup organizations have found in investment firms or other financial entities. Translation: money isn't going to be a problem.

"Their piece in this is the financial rock, with the understanding of what it takes to race and the financial commitment," Custer said. "When you look at the sport and where it's going, you can't do it on a sponsor's back."

And then there's the alliance with seven-time Cup championship organization Hendrick Motorsports, which supplies the Haas team with engines, car bodies and technical support. It's a close relationship; Riggs said Rex Stump, Hendrick's chief engineer, is in the Haas CNC transporter on a weekly basis. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was surprised at his first Hendrick test in Atlanta at how rapidly the Haas team processed information that had been passed on. He was more surprised when crew chief Tony Eury Jr. made changes based on setups the Haas cars had tried.


"Haas is a pretty good little program," he said. "I think unfortunately, with the change that's being made and Tony going over there, there's a little rhetoric labeling Haas as a substandard or below-standard team. Yeah, they don't get results like they should or want. But when I worked with them at Atlanta before the season started, I was surprised at not only how much information we were sending down the pipe, but I was surprised at how much information of ours they had readily available to them. They would try a lot of things we were doing, and I was surprised at how quickly a lot of that got back to us."

But given Hendrick's struggles to find footing with the new car -- the organization has won just twice this season -- that alliance might help the Haas team only so much.

"There's a very good relationship here. When we get a chance to go do testing and we're at the track together, we try to share as much as we can," Riggs said. "But it's four different drivers and our different teams over there. If all of them were within a little percent of being even, it would be easier to follow their trend. But they're all so different, and they're all still searching for what this car wants. That's what a four-car team should do, they should go in a lot of different directions. Unfortunately for us, we can't go in a lot of different directions to do a lot of experimenting."

But the Haas people see that relationship with Hendrick, and their facilities and wind tunnel and seven-post rig, and see Stewart and his clout as the missing link. "Tony brings a lot to the table, we bring a lot to the table," Custer said, "and 20 years from now, hopefully, we'll have proved this was a really smart decisions for both sides."