Exclusive: Stewart on crew chief; injury update

In his first season with the team, Harvick is the oddsmakers' favorite for the title, and should he collect the hardware, it would be SHR's second championship in four years. Stewart delivered the other one in 2011, winning five of the 10 Chase races, including a dramatic Homestead-Miami finale.

A victory for the three-time Cup champ this weekend on the 1.5-mile Homestead oval would be more personally significant. It would keep alive a streak of 16 straight seasons with at least one Sprint Cup victory for Stewart, who won three races as a rookie in 1999.

A win Sunday would be a good morale boost for his No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet team and for himself with the first of two remaining leg surgeries scheduled for early December.

He said it's routine maintenance to shore up his still-healing right leg that he severely broke racing a sprint car in August of 2013.

"It's still a process,'' Stewart said. "My leg doesn't bother me in the car. It bothers me walking around. Where I need it to feel good, it does, it's just everywhere else that it bothers me."

However, Stewart refused to blame this season's tribulations on his injury recovery.

A Coors Light Pole Award at Texas Motor Speedway in April was certainly a highlight. But he has only three top-five and seven top-10 finishes in 32 starts this year. A fourth-place effort at Martinsville in late October was his only top-10 since returning to the cockpit following three races away in August after being involved in a fatal sprint car accident in upstate New York.

"The longer the season went, I realized this rules package does not complement my driving style at all," Stewart said. "If I'm wrong on that, I just haven't figured it out. I can't find a feel that I'm used to or looking for. It's been frustrating for me."

Stewart quickly dismissed any idea that the tumultuous year meant he would part ways with his first-year crew chief Chad Johnston.

"Chad and I are --- probably of all the crew chiefs I've had -- personality-wise, we are probably the best fit in all reality. We have the same level of intensity but also the same level of quick wit, sarcasm; it's like we might be related to one another."

And Stewart is encouraged by the success of Harvick and by the team's other drivers Kurt Busch -- who won at Martinsville to qualify for the Chase -- and Cup sophomore Danica Patrick, who Stewart says has shown quantifiably improved results.

"We know the capabilities there, it's just us finding the combination and it's a combination Kevin and Rodney (Childers, No. 4 crew chief) have found they like," Stewart said. "It's given Kurt, Danica and I all hope that we have speed in the organization. It's not like we can't get there. We know having that car up front every week, the potential is there for the rest of us."

Stewart is very aware of what's on the line this weekend -- for the organization and for himself. He likes making history and fueling great statistical runs.

"I'm just focused on this weekend and focused on anything and everything we can do to have Kevin have a shot at this championship," Stewart said. "And I want to finish strong this weekend. I want my guys to go into the offseason pumped up.

"I go to every race with the attitude I can win the race, that's what the goal is. But there have been other things that have happened this year a lot more important than a win streak."

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