SHR’s Zipadelli talks about expansion, Busch and Childers
Greg Zipadelli, Competition Director for Stewart-Haas Racing, met with the media at Bristol along with Mark Martin, who is subbing for Tony Stewart the rest of the season, part of the questions dealt with 2014 plans for SHR:
Q) IT SEEMS LIKE THERE IS A LOT GOING ON BEHIND THE SCENES AT STEWART-HAAS AND YOU GUYS ARE SEEMINGLY TAKING A PRETTY AGGRESSIVE STANCE AND POSITION ON BUILDING THINGS FOR THE FUTURE. WHAT IS GOING ON, AT STEWART-HAAS? IT SEEMS LIKE YOU GUYS ARE BUILDING AND BEING VERY AGGRESSIVE AND WANT TO BECOME A VERY LARGER PLAYER AMONGST THE HEAVY WEIGHTS?
GREG ZIPADELLI: "I think that is said very well is we are looking to expand. We are looking to do whatever we can to make Stewart-Haas a better place to race, give our drivers better resources. Our crew chiefs and things our goal is to give our teams better product to race every week going into Daytona. With four good drivers next year I think that it gives us that opportunity. Our owners are aggressive. It's kind of exciting it's fun in a time where everybody is kind of going the other way we've got owner that are committed to stepping up and hopefully making Stewart-Haas a bigger and better place in the future.
Q) CAN YOU BE A LITTLE MORE SPECIFIC WHERE DO THINGS STAND WITH KURT (BUSCH) AND IS RODNEY (CHILDERS) GOING TO BE THE CREW CHIEF FOR KEVIN HARVICK NEXT YEAR?
GREG ZIPADELLI: "We love Rodney (Childers) we think a lot of him he has been a friend of mine for a while. We have talked to many people. He is on our radar, but we have no commitments, nothing signed. I talked to people yesterday about the opportunity so we would love to make him part of Stewart-Haas, but we are not there yet.
As far as Kurt's deal that is moving forward. We spent some time this week talking about buildings and expanding. As far as that part of it goes we are pretty much committed.
Q) INAUDIBLE:
GREG ZIPADELLI: "We are working on that and if we can get it all worked out we are going to head that way.
Q) WHAT ESSENTIALLY TRANSPIRED IN THE MONTHS SINCE THE ANNOUNCEMENT IN NEW HAMPSHIRE THAT RYAN (NEWMAN) WOULDN'T BE COMING BACK AND TONY'S STATEMENT AT THE TIME THAT HE DIDN'T THINK YOU WERE READY FOR FOUR CARS? HAS THERE BEEN A QUANTUM CHANGE IN PHILOSOPHY SINCE THEN THAT'S MAYBE ALLOWED YOU TO GO FORWARD WITH THAT FOURTH CAR AS MUCH AS YOU CAN GET INTO THAT WHAT HAS CHANGED?
GREG ZIPADELLI: "I mean obviously something has changed. Gene Haas is obviously a partner and started this many years ago. He just came the other day, he is always liked Kurt (Busch). We had talked about Kurt last year of putting him in the #39 things just didn't work out. It's really nothing that Ryan (Newman) did wrong I mean he's done a great job, he's a good guy, heck of a driver. This just kind of got sprung on us 14 days ago or less. It's kind of all come down. Gene just showed some interest and having the ability to put something together. Without getting into a ton more details that is really all it is. It's something we are working on. I don't know that it will all come together. It's going to take an awful lot. It is kind of late. We didn't think that we would have all the pieces to get put together at Loudon and felt like it was the best thing for Ryan to give him a fair shot at securing something for himself. I mean which is the most important thing. Team Chevy
Q) IT SEEMS LIKE THERE IS A LOT GOING ON BEHIND THE SCENES AT STEWART-HAAS AND YOU GUYS ARE SEEMINGLY TAKING A PRETTY AGGRESSIVE STANCE AND POSITION ON BUILDING THINGS FOR THE FUTURE. WHAT IS GOING ON, AT STEWART-HAAS? IT SEEMS LIKE YOU GUYS ARE BUILDING AND BEING VERY AGGRESSIVE AND WANT TO BECOME A VERY LARGER PLAYER AMONGST THE HEAVY WEIGHTS?
GREG ZIPADELLI: "I think that is said very well is we are looking to expand. We are looking to do whatever we can to make Stewart-Haas a better place to race, give our drivers better resources. Our crew chiefs and things our goal is to give our teams better product to race every week going into Daytona. With four good drivers next year I think that it gives us that opportunity. Our owners are aggressive. It's kind of exciting it's fun in a time where everybody is kind of going the other way we've got owner that are committed to stepping up and hopefully making Stewart-Haas a bigger and better place in the future.
Q) CAN YOU BE A LITTLE MORE SPECIFIC WHERE DO THINGS STAND WITH KURT (BUSCH) AND IS RODNEY (CHILDERS) GOING TO BE THE CREW CHIEF FOR KEVIN HARVICK NEXT YEAR?
GREG ZIPADELLI: "We love Rodney (Childers) we think a lot of him he has been a friend of mine for a while. We have talked to many people. He is on our radar, but we have no commitments, nothing signed. I talked to people yesterday about the opportunity so we would love to make him part of Stewart-Haas, but we are not there yet.
As far as Kurt's deal that is moving forward. We spent some time this week talking about buildings and expanding. As far as that part of it goes we are pretty much committed.
Q) INAUDIBLE:
GREG ZIPADELLI: "We are working on that and if we can get it all worked out we are going to head that way.
Q) WHAT ESSENTIALLY TRANSPIRED IN THE MONTHS SINCE THE ANNOUNCEMENT IN NEW HAMPSHIRE THAT RYAN (NEWMAN) WOULDN'T BE COMING BACK AND TONY'S STATEMENT AT THE TIME THAT HE DIDN'T THINK YOU WERE READY FOR FOUR CARS? HAS THERE BEEN A QUANTUM CHANGE IN PHILOSOPHY SINCE THEN THAT'S MAYBE ALLOWED YOU TO GO FORWARD WITH THAT FOURTH CAR AS MUCH AS YOU CAN GET INTO THAT WHAT HAS CHANGED?
GREG ZIPADELLI: "I mean obviously something has changed. Gene Haas is obviously a partner and started this many years ago. He just came the other day, he is always liked Kurt (Busch). We had talked about Kurt last year of putting him in the #39 things just didn't work out. It's really nothing that Ryan (Newman) did wrong I mean he's done a great job, he's a good guy, heck of a driver. This just kind of got sprung on us 14 days ago or less. It's kind of all come down. Gene just showed some interest and having the ability to put something together. Without getting into a ton more details that is really all it is. It's something we are working on. I don't know that it will all come together. It's going to take an awful lot. It is kind of late. We didn't think that we would have all the pieces to get put together at Loudon and felt like it was the best thing for Ryan to give him a fair shot at securing something for himself. I mean which is the most important thing. Team Chevy