NASCAR: Stewart seeking varied input for new race team

If there’s anything Tony Stewart brought with him to his new venture as co-owner/driver of Stewart-Haas Racing it’s an open mind.

While most people believe the two-time NASCAR Cup champion would do everything he can to emulate the means and ways at Joe Gibbs Racing, Stewart says he has other plans. Though he wants to keep some of what he learned at Gibbs, he also doesn’t want to shut out the creative minds he’s hired.

“We’re taking some of the ideas from Gibbs, for sure, but we’ve got guys from other organizations and we haven’t said it’s the only way it can be done,” Stewart said on the eve of his debut Sunday at Daytona. “With guys coming from five different organizations, we’ve seen some things we like and some things we didn’t like. It’s very much of an open-minded situation.”

Stewart admits his supervisory skills are a bit different from most hands-on owners. He says the hard work on his part was done last year.

“My goal was to hire the best people I could, then let them do their jobs,” said Stewart, who admitted he does not go to the race shop every day. “If you’ve hired the right people, then you don’t look over their shoulders all the time.”

In order to follow that directive, Stewart went after proven winners, including hiring defending Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman as the team’s second driver. He also brought on crew chiefs Darian Grubb, who was a founding member of Jimmie Johnson’s crew, and veteran Tony Gibson. Matt Borland, who once worked with Newman at Penske Racing, is the team’s technical director, while former Childress Racing crew chief Bobby Hutchens is the director of operations.

“Everything Tony has done here is first class,” Grubb said. “He’s given us the best chance to succeed that we could possibly have. There’s not a person here who isn’t thrilled to be here and it’s great to be a part of something new.”

Stewart also hit the pavement running when it came to securing sponsorship, something even more established teams have found frustrating this year. He secured longtime sponsor Old Spice and lured Office Depot away from Roush Fenway Racing to go with the U.S. Army and Burger King, and he signed an engine deal with Hendrick Motorsports.

If he has any goals or expectations, he won’t share them. In fact, he has only one requirement for his team.

“I expect everyone to give 100 percent every day they come to work,” he said. “If we leave the trace rack every week and say we got 100 percent out of our equipment, I’ll be happy.”