No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet
Team: Stewart-Haas Racing
Owners: Tony Stewart/Gene Haas
Crew Chief: Darian Grubb

The Rundown

Is it really better to reign in hell than serve in heaven? Perhaps Tony Stewart is hoping to find out this season, as he trades the security of a car he’s driven his entire Cup career for the challenge of an owner/driver position with his own team, Stewart-Haas Racing.

Stewart had been with Joe Gibbs Racing — an organization he considers to be his family — since moving to the Cup Series full-time in 1999. During that time, Stewart had unwavering sponsor loyalty and support from Home Depot and a steadfast crew chief in Greg Zipadelli, who’d been on the pit box through Stewart’s two Cup championships, 33 wins, 207 top-10 finishes and 10,000-plus laps led. 

Both car owner Joe Gibbs and Zipadelli have also served as Stewart’s defenders through the years. 

Stewart has never fully explained the decision to leave Joe Gibbs Racing for his own race team, with everything from dissatisfaction with Toyota to outlandish money offered by Chevrolet cited as the possible cause. This much is for certain: When the ownership opportunity — free ownership, at that — presented itself, he simply could not refuse.

Here’s what we know about the makeup of Stewart’s team for 2009: His car number will be 14 (a tribute to his racing hero, A.J. Foyt) with primary sponsor duties shared by Office Depot, Old Spice and Burger King, which has signed on for two races. Stewart’s crew chief will be Darian Grubb, who’s shifting from his role at Hendrick Motorsports, and Ryan Newman will join the organization as Stewart’s teammate in the No. 39 car.

Stewart-Haas will receive engines and technical support from Hendrick, and Stewart can fall back on a past champion’s provisional to qualify for races if he’s outside the top 35 in owner points.

As for how he’ll fare as an owner, Stewart himself notes that his years at Gibbs have provided a solid management model for this latest venture. “I’ve modeled my USAC and World of Outlaws teams the same way they built their NASCAR team, and I made it a point to find good people to run those programs,” he says. “If I’ve learned anything from my time at Joe Gibbs Racing, it’s that Joe Gibbs’ saying of, ‘You win with people,’ is incredibly true.”

But finding those people is easier said than done. With the No. 20 crew untouchable as part of his divorce from Gibbs, Stewart is busy repatching a team with a hodgepodge of personnel, making it hard to fix cars that placed 30th and 43rd in the owner standings right away. While Chevy will make Hendrick step it up equipment-wise, that isn’t a fix-all, making Stewart’s patience critical. If the owner can subscribe to a philosophy of long-term growth, his team could surprise in the second half of the season. If not … well, at least it’ll be entertaining.

Opposing Crew Chiefs’ Take

A surprising number of crew chiefs expect Tony Stewart to fare better than expected in his first season with essentially his own team. “Here’s what I bet happens,” says one. “He’ll exceed expectations in Year 1, without a doubt. He’ll go out and win multiple races. Tony is a successful driver and a phenomenal talent. The question is Year 2 and Year 3. What he’s underestimating is how much effort Rick Hendrick, Joe Gibbs and Jack Roush put into keeping things top-notch. Tony Stewart needs to find someone who can motivate Tony Stewart.”

Another expresses disbelief at the separation of Stewart from longtime crew chief Greg Zipadelli, who remains at Gibbs. “I’m shocked Zippy isn’t president, general manager, or something, at Stewart-Haas. There are only so many successful CEOs in the world. Everyone needs a boss. Few people can do without a boss. Let’s see if Tony can.”

Adds another crew chief: “No one has more talent than Tony Stewart, and no one wants to win more. His weakness is a tendency to self-destruct under pressure.”

2008 Recap

Tony Stewart’s 2008 season had much more to do with 2009 than it did with the racing at hand. Even before the season began, Stewart was fielding queries from the media about the status of his contract at Joe Gibbs Racing, which was not set to expire until the end of 2009.

An early run-in with Kurt Busch at Daytona briefly sidelined that talk; both drivers got probation for an on-track incident in practice, then battled in the Daytona 500 before Busch backed teammate Ryan Newman, costing Stewart a shot at his first victory in the Great American Race.

But after that, the team went through its usual early season slump, and when the story broke in April that Stewart was looking at buying a share of Haas CNC Racing, the distractions were all but overwhelming. Finally, a definitive announcement came in early July, confirming the inevitable: Stewart would leave JGR at the end of the season for his new role as owner/driver.

Even after the decision was made, questions followed Stewart wherever he went, frustrating the No. 20 team and keeping it from its annual sizzling summer (winless in those three months for the first time since ’03). Despite the distractions, Stewart did manage to make the Chase, though he didn’t see victory lane until the 30th race of the season at Talladega. By that time, he was far out of title contention; a ninth in the finale at Homestead was his only other notable finish the last six weeks.

Stewart still ended the year ninth in points, continuing a 10-year streak of 11th or better in the season standings. He also achieved a significant milestone in late June at Loudon, when he became only the 13th driver in NASCAR history to lead more than 10,000 laps.

Purchase your 2009 Racing magazine here.