2012 Review
Tony Stewart had a roller coaster beginning to 2012. Despite winning the championship the previous season, he and then-crew chief Darien Grubb parted ways, Grubb moving over to Joe Gibbs Racing. Stewart picked up Steve Addington from Penske Racing as replacement.
Once competition began, the roller coaster picked up steam. After a 16th place result in the Daytona 500, Stewart's next four finishes looked like this: 22nd, 1st, 16th, 1st.
That continued throughout the year, with the driver known as "Smoke" picking up 14 more top-ten finishes, while finishing 20th or worse 11 more times.
While the No.14 team was able to make the Chase, they never found a way to consistently put the car up front , and in turn, never put up a serious run at the championship.
Stewart ended up ninth in the final standings.
2013 Preview:
While Stewart's team remains largely intact, there was one major addition to Stewart-Haas Racing over the offseason: Danica Patrick.
While this doesn't affect the No.14 team directly, as co-owner of the company Stewart will end up having to field a gazillion questions about his new driver and teammate, ranging from insignificant to tedious.
He'll also to a small extent as owner and teammate be responsible for Patrick's progress as she embarks on her first full season in NASCAR's top series.
These potential distractions aside, Smoke is still the same guy who can win in any type of race car on any given type of track on any given day. And it's been proven that he and Addington can be a winning a combination.
But can they win often enough to earn Stewart his fourth Sprint Cup?
2013 Prediction:
There's a lot Tony Stewart will have to balance both on the track and off, between a new driver in the stable who will likely dominate media attention and a race team that needs to figure out how to not check out every couple of race weekends.
Stewart will definitely win at the very least a race or two —he's too talented not to, and he has never failed to win a race in a single season of his career.
But its hard to imagine the new distraction of Danica Patrick helping an organization that saw the other teammate Ryan Newman struggle for most of 2012 while Stewart yo-yoed his way through the campaign.
It won't be a terrible year by any means, but it won't be a great one either, especially by Smoke's high standards.
J-Mac's 2013 Top 12 So Far:
8. Tony Stewart
9. Denny Hamlin
10. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
11. Greg Biffle
12. Carl Edwards
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