Notebook: Stewart: We had to change direction

Notebook: Stewart: We had to change direction

 

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

 

(June 11, 2011)

 

LONG POND, Pa.—Tony Stewart felt he had to make a move.

 That’s why the co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing released Bobby Hutchens from his job as competition director for the organization, in a move announced Monday.

 “We just feel like we’re not headed in the direction we want,” Stewart told reporters Friday at Pocono Raceway. “We’ve got to make a change in that direction. I can promise you, it’s one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make in my life.

 “I think the world of Bobby. I have a lot of respect for Bobby, but it’s a situation where you’ve got to sit there and evaluate where and if things are going in a direction you want it to go, and I just don’t feel like it’s doing that right now.”

 Hutchens had been with the organization since late 2008, when Stewart assumed part ownership of the organization. Stewart promoted Matt Borland, former crew chief for his teammate, Ryan Newman, to vice president of competition. On an interim basis, Borland also will serve as director of competition until a replacement for Hutchens is found.

 “Matt Borland has been there from Day 1,” Stewart said. “The thing we wanted to do was take Matt—because he’s so smart—and put him on the project side where he can really look at different aspects of our team and company and try to figure out how to get 100 percent out of it.

 “He’s been in the role of competition director there at the shop before, so it makes him an easy choice to have somebody in there like him right now, until we can find somebody we feel like is the right person.”

 

Denny Hamlin strong again

 If you have to pick a winner for Sunday’s 5-Hour Energy 500 at Pocono Raceway, you can’t go wrong with Denny Hamlin, who developed an affinity for the 2.5-mile triangular track the first time he saw it.

 As a rookie in 2006, Hamlin won both Pocono races from the pole. Since then he has claimed two more victories, the last coming in last year’s June race. All told, Hamlin has four wins and seven top-five finishes in 10 starts at the Tricky Triangle.

 A fourth-place run in Saturday’s time trials has Hamlin in position to excel in Sunday’s race.

 “We definitely have a good racecar,” Hamlin said after qualifying. “We really don’t expect to qualify awesome here, but it was still a great job by our FedEx team. They’ve just done an amazing job of giving me a good racecar each time we come here—we just love coming here to Pocono.”

 

 Frantic work on Kurt Busch’s backup

 Here’s the other side of Kurt Busch’s pole-winning run at Pocono on Saturday—in a backup car:

 Busch wrecked his primary car two laps into Friday’s second practice session. By then, his crew had made significant adjustments to the No. 22 Dodge. So when the backup car rolled out of the hauler, Busch’s crew had to work like madmen to install the same changes in the backup.

 As a result, Busch got only 10 practice laps in the backup car—and still put it on the pole during time trials.

 “This 22 crew, the 2 car guys (of teammate Brad Keselowski), everybody back at the shop, the fab guys here—what an effort,” crew chief Steve Addington said. “When we unloaded the backup car, we had made so many changes during practice with the primary car (that) we didn’t get a lot of track time with the backup.

 “I want to thank everybody on this Shell/Pennzoil Dodge. The work they did to get this car ready was awesome. To lay down a lap like that is pretty impressive—and that guy that sits behind the steering wheel isn’t too damn bad, either.”