Author: Bob Pockrass
Date: Jan. 21, 2015
Kevin Harvick will keep the over-the-wall pit crew that he had the final 10 weeks of his 2014 Sprint Cup championship season instead of having that crew go back to teammate Tony Stewart.
When announced in September, the Stewart-Haas Racing crew swap was supposed to be temporary, only for Harvick’s championship run, with the over-the-wall crewmen returning to their original team for 2015.
But the team has confirmed the swap would now be permanent.
"There really wasn't that much difference in terms of their times on paper, it was within a tenth of a second,” Stewart told NASCAR.comduring an appearance Tuesday night in Tampa. "We just felt like that chemistry worked really well..
"I really liked my guys at the end of the year, and I'll miss having my full-time guys with me, but I think we're all comfortable with the change and look at it as we all work under the same roof and we're all one team."
Harvick's current pit crew had been Stewart’s championship crew in 2011.
While Harvick looks to defend his 2014 championship, Stewart is looking to bounce back from the worst season of his career. He missed three races after being involved in the sprint-car accident that killed driver Kevin Ward Jr. and failed to win a race for the first time in 16 NASCAR Cup seasons.
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