NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Stewart Says Expansion Unlikely
Stewart-Haas Racing is in its third year...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted June 30, 2011   Charlotte, NC
Tony Stewart (Left) and Ryan Newman (Right) are expected to remain Stewart-Haas Racing's only two Sprint Cup Series drivers in 2012. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Tony Stewart’s goal since becoming co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing prior to the 2009 season was to eventually build the NASCAR Sprint Cup team up from two cars to four. But that probably won’t happen next season, Stewart said.

Asked by SPEED.com if SHR would remain a two-car team next year, Stewart said, “I would think so. We’re kind of in that crunch time of the year where if a package was going to happen, it would pretty much be that the wheels would have to be in motion by now.”

Nevertheless, Stewart said SHR already has the infrastructure in place to expand, if need be.

“The good thing is that our shop is set up and capable of doing a three-car team,” Stewart said. “It’s not like we have to go build a building just to do it. We have that side of it in place and have made provisions to do it, if something were to come about.”

That’s the business side of things.

On the driver’s side, Stewart is a three-time winner of the Coke Zero 400 and will be one of the favorites again this weekend at Daytona International Speedway.

For Stewart, a true student of motorsports past and present, Daytona holds a special place for him.

“There's nothing about the track that's different than a lot of places we go to. It's just the history of it,” he said of the 2.5-mile superspeedway, which opened in 1959. “It's the history of that trophy. It's the history of that event. It's knowing that this is where our sport was started. It didn't start right where we're sitting, it started at the beach. But to see how this sport started and how it's evolved and when this facility was built, it was way ahead of its time. To see how, as time has gone on, technology has changed, how this place still produces some of the greatest races of the season, the fact that it's the most important place of our season, that's what makes this place special.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
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