Tony Stewart's New Team: Three Moves That Will Make Them Competitive

With Tony Stewart to Haas CNC Racing almost a done deal, and Ryan Newman rumored to be following him to the team, one of Sprint Cup's perennial back markers is set to see a major overhaul for 2009. With Stewart as part-owner, many major sponsors are said to be talking to the team.

Currently, the prediction is that Stewart and Office Depot will take over one car, and Ryan Newman and Burger King will take over the other. (Chances are, as he would have a champion's provisional, Stewart will take the car worse off in owners' points at the end of this season.)

However, more than driver and sponsor upheaval is necessary to make Haas CNC Racing look, feel, and race like a contender for years to come. Stewart needs to implement some other changes to make his team strong in the present and the future.

Of course, having Hendrick Motorsports power plants means that the cars have the necessary power to win. But if a team doesn't have the right people in place, or the right attitude, it simply won't make the grade in the ultra-competitive Sprint Cup Series.

So, Tony, if you're listening, here are three things you ought to do to make your new toy a little shinier in the eyes of everyone else:

1. Re-number the cars

Haas CNC currently owns the rights to the numbers 65, 66, and 70. (65, for the record, is an R&D team for Haas that has seen some test time with Chad McCumbee this year.)

If Stewart wants to immediately assert that his new team is for real, he needs to make a big marketing move quickly. He'd be wise to dump those three numbers.

Perhaps Stewart's best bet would be to secure the rights to the numbers four and 14. Morgan-McClure Motorsports is currently inactive and no longer owns the rights to the four, and the 14 disappeared when Ginn Racing merged with Dale Earnhardt Inc. last year. Burger King has a history with the 14, as DEI ran some races with a No. 14 Burger King Chevrolet in 1997 for Steve Park.

Putting Stewart in a No. 4 Office Depot Chevrolet and Newman in a No. 14 Burger King Chevrolet would immediately assert that the new team means business and intends on winning races right away. Securing those two numbers instills an attitude of confidence in employees ready to win with a team whose new owner means business.

If nothing else, it'd be a savvy PR move that emphasizes Stewart's intent to avoid becoming the next Michael Waltrip.

2. Bring in Greg Zipadelli and Matt Borland as crew chiefs

Sorry, Bootie.

Zipadelli's been Stewart's crew chief for 10 years at Gibbs. Even the notion of Stewart in a Sprint Cup car without Zippy at the helm is almost unfathomable. The fact that their partnership has lasted so long is a testament to the level of communication between them, and to mess with that could be a disaster.

In other words, a little familiarity despite the change of scenery would be nice.

Meanwhile, Newman had some of his best years in NASCAR with Borland, currently employed as Haas CNC's team competition director. In effect, Borland and Bootie Barker could swap roles—Barker is one of the most intelligent men in the garage area, and would do well as a team manager.

3. Set up a Nationwide Series program

With the Nationwide Car of Tomorrow set to debut in selected races in 2009, Stewart would be smart to build a few cars and set up a driver development program in NASCAR's number two series. A full-time program could be ready by 2010, the year the Nationwide COT is supposed to become the series' new car full-time.

Stewart could even set up a full-time team next season, albeit potentially at great cost (with the old cars going to waste after one season), and expand to two cars in 2010.

The obvious first choice to build the program is Johnny Sauter, a longtime Haas CNC driver. Sauter has steadily put the team's Cup cars in races for the most part, and is an attractive driver to sponsors as evidenced by his long relationship with Yellow Transportation.

In the future, Stewart's USAC and World of Outlaws drivers—Tracy Hines, Levi Jones, Kraig Kinser, and Donny Schatz—could see themselves in the Nationwide cars. As a two-time WoO champion, Schatz could certainly use a new challenge. It also helps that Stewart and Newman, as former USAC drivers, would enjoy having a teammate with a similar racing background.

It'd also be a great step towards making Tony Stewart Racing, or Stewart/Haas Racing, or whatever the team is called in 2009, a perennial contender under the watchful eye of one of the best drivers of the past decade.