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Zipadelli on Stewart's Chase chances: "He’s going to have to get hot"

For all intents and purposes, if Tony Stewart is to make his NASCAR exit this season with a fourth Sprint Cup Series championship, he’ll need to win next week’s race.

Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing

Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing

Action Sports Photography

Start: Carl Edwards, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota leads
Greg Zipadelli, Director of Competition Stewart-Haas Racing
Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
Chase driver: Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing

Stewart and his No. 14 Chevrolet team struggled through much of Sunday’s Bad Boy Off Road 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, finishing a lap down and in 23rd place.

“Tony was a lot happier with his car yesterday after the debrief,” said Greg Zipadelli, Stewart-Haas Racing’s director of competition, told Motorsport.com. “He was real happy with how it drove. We felt like it was a solid car and made good changes overnight.

“He was doing OK and then he said something happened and he said the car just felt weird. We adjusted from there and nothing seemed to help it.”

Coming on the heels of his 16th place finish last weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, Stewart enters next week’s race at Dover, Del., ranked 15th among the 16 Chase drivers in points. He is 11 points behind 12th place Kyle Larson.

The four lowest drivers in points without a win are eliminated from title contention following the race.

“We’re going to have to go there and win,” Zipadelli said. “The track has been kind of hot and cold for him in his career and he’s going to have to get hot. It’s time to go.”

Teammate Kevin Harvick’s win on Sunday locked him into the second round of the Chase, while Kurt Busch’s fifth-place finish left him 11th in points but a 10-point cushion over 12th place.

Of three SHR drivers in the Chase, Stewart is in the most trouble heading into the first elimination race.

“Obviously, with Busch being pretty solid in and Kevin being locked in, at the end of the day, the No. 14 has to go out and execute now,” Zipadelli said. “We all work together as a group. We share information really good, the drivers talk really good with each other about the lines they run.

“All of that communication will continue. We’ll put a good car under ‘Smoke’ and we’ll go after it next week.”

Harvick, for one, says not to count out his team owner.

“He can go to any race track and win – he’s Tony Stewart. I wouldn’t bet against him,” he said. “I don't know what his circumstances and scenario are going into Dover, but we'll do everything we can to help him get to the point where he needs to be to try to move on.”

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