Stewart-Haas Racing, the championship-winning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team, has swapped the pit crews of it #4 and #14 teams, effective immediately. Beginning with Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois, the #14 team’s tire changers, tire carriers and jackmen will switch to the #4 team, and vice versa. ‘We made this change in the best interests of the entire organization,’ said Greg Zipadelli, vice president of competition, Stewart-Haas Racing. ‘Our primary goal is to win races and championships, and this pit crew swap provides championship experience to the #4 team and continued race-winning experience to the #14 team.’ (Stewart-Haas Racing(9-9-2014)
UPDATE: Kevin Harvick says the members of his pit crew that were switched to finish out the season with teammate and Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner Tony Stewart will get better with time. But with NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup beginning this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, time wasn’t on Harvick’s, or the team’s side. ‘They do perform well,’ Harvick said of his now former crew Thursday during media day in downtown Chicago. ‘They just have to work on the consistency, and a lot of that consistency will come with time. The 14 group has been fortunate to be together for a long time and have been through the championship stuff. My guys are going to do great, they just need time to go through all the situations that all these pit crews that have been together for a long time have seen ‘¦ pit hoses getting stepped on and tires get hung and lug nuts fall off. I think everybody talked about it and felt like this was the right thing to do for now with the opportunity that we have,’ Harvick said. ‘Give those guys a little time to hopefully get Tony to Victory Lane and be competitive, (still) be in the same environment and do all the same things.’(NASCAR.com)(9-12-2014)
