Hendrick Motorsports: Relationship with Stewart-Haas Racing is ‘not business as usual’
The once tight alliance between Stewart-Haas Racing and Hendrick Motorsports is splintering with the news SHR is changing manufacturers from Chevrolet to Ford for the 2017 season.
SHR’s decision to defect has created an awkward scenario where the four-car team remains aligned with Hendrick, which supplies SHR with engines, cars and technical support, for the current season yet preparations will soon begin in earnest for its conversion to Ford.
During the introductory press conference Wednesday, Tony Stewart, SHR co-owner, said Rick Hendrick was informed last month that SHR was likely to leave Chevrolet and join the Ford camp. Ever since, discussions between SHR vice president of competition Greg Zipadelli and Hendrick general manager Doug Duchardt have been ongoing on how the two organizations would approach the 2016 season.
“Obviously, the relationship has changed,” Duchardt told SiriusXM Radio on Thursday. “It’s not business as usual. For sure, I feel like that Greg and I are on the same page on how we are going to work together this year and move forward. We’re going to work as professionally as we can to get through 2016. We both have the same goals and that’s win races and championships and this year is going to be for Chevrolet.”
Stewart acknowledged the changing dynamic, with Hendrick still obligated to provide equipment and share information with a team that is going to a rival manufacturer at the end of the season.
“Obviously, it will change in some respects for 2016 with this news,” Stewart said. “But we believe we’ll still have a really good working relationship for another year this year.”
