Will Tony Stewart be competetive in 2014?

M

Marty D

Guest
IMO I think the leg injury will be his demise...let's face it he's not a kid anymore, and the thought of another bad wreck will curtail his aggressiveness...sure we'll see him running up front and possibly winning a race...but his chances of making the chase are slim....I hope I'm wrong only time will tell.
 
OTH guys like Petty, Allison, Cale, AJ were all F up in bad wrecks and went on to be successful... I hope Tony can come back.
 
Stewart will likely come back with a vengeance. One of the things that could derail that is dealing with the new personalities at SHR.
 
He may not be entirely healthy at the start of the season like he says he will, but he usually doesn't heat up until the summer months anyways. He'll get in a groove when it matters.
 
''I think we have a lot more potential than we've ever had,'' Stewart said. ''Kevin and I have a great relationship. I've not really worked with Kurt before. The first time talking to Kurt, it's been great so far. Enjoy our conversations. To me, there is potential to take this organization to a level that it just hasn't had the opportunity to be yet because we've been smaller.''
-Tony Stewart
 
I think Tony will be in contention for the championship. SHR is going to be very competitive for years to come.
 
With Burton ,Labonte and Martin about to exit the sport , that will leave Biffle ,Gordon and Stewart as the grey haired old geezers of Nascar . Will it not ? Do any of them have an upside ? Perhaps they will take up spots in the chase for many more years.
 
I think he'll be competitive, but I don't think he'll be a serious title contender. There are all kinds of questions surrounding both his injury and the team. Probably a couple of wins and a points finish in the bottom half of the Chase field.
 
I do wonder how much longer he plans on running full time. Being an owner of the team he could easily decide to pick and choose what races he wants to run a few years down the road.
 
I do wonder how much longer he plans on running full time. Being an owner of the team he could easily decide to pick and choose what races he wants to run a few years down the road.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing he'll run until he can't. But he's having a long time to mull over his future as a driver and owner.
 
Marty D said:
IMO I think the leg injury will be his demise...let's face it he's not a kid anymore, and the thought of another bad wreck will curtail his aggressiveness...sure we'll see him running up front and possibly winning a race...but his chances of making the chase are slim....I hope I'm wrong only time will tell.
Click to expand...

Im not sure if he'll be competitive.. but I think the fact that you think he wont be as aggressive because of his injury is utterly laughable.. Were talking about Tony Stewart here not Douchy Hamlin... First of all.. I think Tony fears nothing.. second, he knows as well as I do and you should that the cup cars are MUCH safer than the sprint car that he broke his leg driving... I don't see his injury making him less aggressive.. although it could have a Hamlin-like effect where he is unable to feel the car under him as much as he should to be able to judge what its doing. I dont really even see that happening though. His team wasn't very competitive all year and if anything I think the butting heads of his new team mates will be the problem.. either that or will propel the entire team to the top of the charts repetitively.

Sooo to answer your question.. I think he will have a very (ironically) Tony Stewart-esque season.. slow start dealing with the new rules and new drivers.. but will start to emerge as a chase contender into the season... although I dont expect him to win another cup again.. I think Kurt will be the top dog at SHR next season.
 
Yes.
cndHDS0.jpg
 
I think he'll have a slow start to the season....going from 3 teams to 4 teams...2 new drivers in the stable....new CC...and having not been behind the wheel of a stock car for quite some time...and I think I read somewhere that his leg will be at 70% when he returns...

but this is tony freaking stewart...I think he'll get 2-4 wins and make the chase...but I don't see him being a contender for the championship...but then u think about his run in 2011...so I wouldn't count him out
 
I don't doubt Tony's driving ability for a second, I just don't know how SHR as a team is going to do in 2014. That's a whole lot of explosive personalities on one team. And let's not forget that Tony wasn't exactly setting the world ablaze before he got hurt last year. Something was just off with that 14 team. Mark Martin all but disappeared when he took it over last year, he actually ran much better in the 55.
 
I'll assume you mean competitive for a championship, as in being within 15 at Homestead.

No. IMO, Tony had huge luck and a lot of help winning his last championship. The 2 fuel wins went his way, Carl raced timid, the field did more than just let Tony call in those chips, many raced Carl extra hard. Even with all that, it all came down to well timed rain shower. Tony fired SHR's golden contact to HMS, and I doubt they will perform at the same level until they get the people to do it themselves.

Then Tony has to adjust to the new feel in his repaired leg. At his age, I doubt he can be the same.
 
Marty D said:
...but his chances of making the chase are slim...
Click to expand...

Why are his chances slim? Right now they're as good as any other driver.

He's a 3 time champion, a consistent race winner and sure fire Hall of Famer. He's arguably one of the best drivers of his generation. The only thing that will prevent him from being competitive is the resources being spread too thin at SHR. As long as SHR as an organization doesn't fall behind like they did in 2013 then I would fully expect Smoke to be winning races and making the Chase.
 
ToyYoda said:
I don't doubt Tony's driving ability for a second, I just don't know how SHR as a team is going to do in 2014. That's a whole lot of explosive personalities on one team. And let's not forget that Tony wasn't exactly setting the world ablaze before he got hurt last year. Something was just off with that 14 team. Mark Martin all but disappeared when he took it over last year, he actually ran much better in the 55.
Click to expand...

Martin's average finish was better in the Stewart Chevy, than his average finish in the MWR ride.
 
StandOnIt said:
Martin's average finish was better in the Stewart Chevy, than his average finish in the MWR ride.
Click to expand...
That's actually not true. He had 1 top-5, 4 top-10's, and a pole in 16 races and an average finish of 20.4 in the 55. He had no top-5's and only 1 top-10, and an average finish of 21.5 in 12 races in the 14.
 
Last edited:
average finish in a MWR this year. 21.13...average finish in a Stewart Chevy 21.5 so yeah .37 better, but I wouldn't call that running much better IMO. And he wasn't able to cherry pick the tracks he wanted to race at with SHR like he was doing at MWR. At any rate, neither place was Mark exactly tearing them up.
 
Stewart Fan said:
And people will say it's a fix job by Nascar to get media attention.
Click to expand...
Jimmie Johnson's 6 championships in 8 years is a fix job. Phantom cautions are a fix job. Tony's miracle title 2 years ago was a fix job. NASCAR's struggling attempts to grant jr a win is a fix job. Gordon being the 13th chase birth was a fix job. If tony Stewart wins the Daytona 500 it's a fix job

Can we just enjoy the sport for whatever it is? No? Ok.
 
ChexOrWrex said:
Jimmie Johnson's 6 championships in 8 years is a fix job. Phantom cautions are a fix job. Tony's miracle title 2 years ago was a fix job. NASCAR's struggling attempts to grant jr a win is a fix job. Gordon being the 13th chase birth was a fix job. If tony Stewart wins the Daytona 500 it's a fix job

Can we just enjoy the sport for whatever it is? No? Ok.
Click to expand...
At least it ain't broken ;)
 
Got a feeling the SHR Team will be awesome, or crash & burn. My gut tells me the competitiveness between Tony, Kevin and now Kurt will be unreal. None of the three will want to lose to the others. I think it will be the story of Nascar in 2014 and I can't wait to watch!!
 
ChexOrWrex said:
Jimmie Johnson's 6 championships in 8 years is a fix job. Phantom cautions are a fix job. Tony's miracle title 2 years ago was a fix job. NASCAR's struggling attempts to grant jr a win is a fix job. Gordon being the 13th chase birth was a fix job. If tony Stewart wins the Daytona 500 it's a fix job

Can we just enjoy the sport for whatever it is? No? Ok.
Click to expand...

I agree. Brad is the only legit champion in the last 8 years. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom