Entering New Hampshire, three-time champion currently sits 28th in points
While it seems as if everyone else has been on Tony Stewart retirement watch, Tony Stewart has been on "What the hell can we do to get better?" watch.
Halfway through the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, Stewart, 44, has yet to score his first top-five finish. He has a single top 10. And he's 28th in points as the series prepares to head to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for Sunday's 5-hour ENERGY 301 (1:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM).
His past two seasons have been abbreviated. Stewart suffered a broken leg in '13 and missed the final 15 races; last year his involvement in an on-track fatality left him sidelined for three races.
This year brought a new rules package featuring lower downforce and less horsepower, changes to which admits he has yet to adapt.
So while some wonder just how much longer he will continue to compete, Stewart says he is much more concerned with how he can get back to the form that saw him win three series titles (2002, '05, '11) and 48 races.
"Right now I'm just trying to figure out how to get my car working, to be honest with you," Stewart said during a national teleconference on Tuesday when asked about career longevity. "To me, I don't care how we get there. I don't care if it takes one week or if it takes six weeks to get there, the main thing is just getting there.
"We're going to keep working hard and keep pushing to try to find that. With the way this (Chase) format is … all it takes is one good race for us to get in. If we can find whatever it is that we've been missing … one race can change our whole season. That's the driving force every week."
Stewart has won at least one race on 21 of the 23 tracks currently hosting Sprint Cup events, a mark surpassed only by four-time series champ Jeff Gordon. His wins are spread out among the various venues -- at times he's been as strong on the 1.5-mile tracks as on the road courses. He's a five-time winner on the restrictor-plate tracks, and many of his victories been earned on short tracks.
He hasn't won, however, in his last 59 starts, last visiting victory lane at Dover International Speedway in June of 2013 while paired with crew chief Steve Addington.
Chad Johnston has been calling the shots for the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 team since the start of 2014. Stewart still believes in his crew chief.
"I don't feel like he's what's holding us back," he said. "There's something about the way this package is that just doesn't suit my driving style. It's a scenario that when you drive for so long, you're used to one thing … coming into this year and taking the amount of horsepower they took out was a pretty radical change for the Cup Series.
"I think it was more the horsepower reduction than it was anything that I feel like has hurt me this year. I've grown up driving high‑horsepower cars, high power‑to‑weight ratio cars. This hasn't been what I'm used to feeling."
RELATED: Drivers give package rave reviews
Because he hasn't found that balance and feel for which he is searching, Stewart said it would be unwise to look to him for an opinion on NASCAR's latest rules change, a lower downforce package used this past weekend at Kentucky Speedway. A version of the package will also be used later this year at Darlington Raceway.
As an owner (Stewart is co-owner of SHR), any changes that, "put better races on is in all of our best interests," he said.
"The part that's hard for the teams is the process … changing this, changing that. All that cost comes out of our pockets. It doesn't come out of NASCAR's pocket. NASCAR decides they want to change something (and) we're the ones that have to spend the money to do it.
"I think all of the owners will do whatever's in the best interest of making it better. I just would like to see NASCAR share some of that expense versus saying, 'Hey, we got an idea, we want to try this,' then the teams have to spend all the money to do it."
For now, though, Stewart has more pressing concerns.
"I feel like every weekend, it's the weekend we're going to find it," he said. "It's disheartening, takes the wind out of your sails when you realize you haven't found it that week. …
"It's not strictly about a win. If we get our car working and win a race because we have our car working well, it definitely can turn the season around. With this format, it can change everything.
"That's your reason not to give up. That's your reason to keep fighting every week and show up at the track with the same attitude you did the week before. You can go out there, win the race, (and) get everything going."