Kurt Busch, back on the job in NASCAR after a three-week suspension because of a domestic violence case in Delaware, returns to a Stewart-Haas Racing team that is producing mixed results.
One of its drivers, Kevin Harvick, is atop the Sprint Cup Series points standings, with two runner-up finishes — at Daytona and Atlanta, and a win last week at Las Vegas. And he’s headed to this weekend’s race at Phoenix International Raceway, where he’s won three consecutive Cup races and four of the past five.
On the other end of the spectrum, team co-owner Tony Stewart is 34th in the standings, with a best finish of 30th at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In between are the No. 10 team of Danica Patrick, 20th in the standings, and Busch’s No. 41 team which is 13th in the owner points standings after three races with Regan Smith as the substitute driver. Smith’s driver points are counted in the Xfinity Series, as he’s expected to run a full season there.
Harvick’s crew chief Rodney Childers said in the winner’s interview at Las Vegas that getting the rest of the team up to speed is a priority.
“We’ve actually worked really hard on that stuff over the offseason,” Childers said. “We changed a lot of things around in the shop and made it to where there are only two shop foremen — the 14 (Stewart’s team) and us have the same shop foremen. We’ve built the cars the same, the same parts, pieces, and really all the teams are doing the same deal now.
“We want all four teams to finish one, two, three, four. That’s the goal of the company.”
Overcoming obstacles: Single-car teams often are at a disadvantage to the larger multi-car teams in the NASCAR garage, but two drivers are showing so far this year that it is possible to find success with smaller teams, as long as the equipment comes from one of the powerhouse companies.
And after three races this season, Martin Truex Jr. and A.J. Allmendinger are off to fast starts driving for single-car teams that get cars, engines and technology from Richard Childress Racing.
Truex, who drives the No. 78 Chevrolet for Furniture Row Racing, is fourth in the points standings with finishes of eighth, sixth and second in the first three races of 2015. Allmendinger, who drives the No. 47 for JTG-Daugherty Racing, is fifth in the standings with finishes of 20th at Daytona, seventh at Atlanta and sixth at Las Vegas.
Oddly, Childress’ in-house drivers aren’t faring as well in the standings so far. Paul Menard is 12th, Ryan Newman 13th and Austin Dillon 22nd.
Allmendinger said his strong finish at Las Vegas was in large part because of his team’s alliance with Childress.
“We weren’t as good as we wanted to be kind of over the course of the weekend, but I think the RCR Alliance really helped,” Allmendinger said. “Obviously the 31 (Newman) and the 78 (Truex) cars were really fast, and we kind of … switched over to more their setup, and that really kind of woke the car up and got us in a good place….
“I think we’re all getting better, and that’s what we all need.”
Truex said the alliance is working better this year because the participants have a year’s worth of experience working together.
“I think that A.J. and I were both new coming into that system last year, and just getting in there, those guys getting confidence in us, our teams working together better,” he said, pointing out that his crew chief and team engineer both came through the ranks in the Childress organization.
Penalties assessed: Two Sprint Cup teams have been penalized for rules infractions during the recent weekend races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The most serious penalty was assessed to the No. 51 team of driver Justin Allgaier. His crew chief Steve Addington was fined $25,000 after ballast was seen falling off the car during the Kobalt 400.
The car also failed to meet the minimum weight requirement after the race.
Also, Paul Wolfe, crew chief of the No. 2 Ford driven by Brad Keselowski, was put on NASCAR probation for the remainder of the year after his car was found with modifications to the right and left rear quarter-panel wheel openings after the car was inspected before qualifying Friday. The car was sent back through inspection before being allowed on the track.
NASCAR officials banned the practice of pulling out the wheel openings to gain an aerodynamic advantage after teams began doing it nearly every week last year, often to the point of making the car look odd as it circled the track.
