Analysis: Bowyer, HScott playing catch-up after SHR announcement – Nascar

This was expected to be a big year for HScott Motorsports, with the addition of veteran Clint Bowyer to its driver lineup and a closer working relationship with Stewart-Haas Racing helping to stabilize a team that is only in its third full season of full-time competition.
 
While Bowyer’s stay at HSM will be brief — he leaves to take over the No. 14 entry at Stewart-Haas Racing next year — he had expressed hopes of being able to help HScott improve its program before his departure.
 
Such has not been the case, however.
 
Through the first seven races, Bowyer is 32nd in points and understandably frustrated.

There has been no increase in the level of support provided by Stewart-Haas, in light of that four-team organization’s impending move to Ford in ’17, an announcement made in late February by team co-owners Tony Stewart and Gene Haas.
 
That wasn’t expected to be the case when Bowyer was introduced as the newest driver addition to HScott late last year. At that time, relationships with Stewart-Haas and Hendrick Motorsport were said to be key factors in the decision-making process for all involved.
 
“I’m looking forward to the marriage that (team owner Harry Scott) has with Hendrick (Motorsports), with Stewart-Haas, that is very strong and it’s something that I’m looking forward to building on,” Bowyer said at the time. “I’ve got the best of the best when you talk about equipment. We’ve got Hendrick engines; we’ve got ties to Stewart-Haas Racing. These are the guys that are winning all the races. I now have that bond, that connection to this kind of equipment.”
 
Bringing Bowyer, an eight-time winner in NASCAR’s premier series, on board even for only one year was seen as a step up the competitive ladder for HScott, which struggled on the track with teammates Michael Annett and Justin Allgaier in ’15. Additional support from a group as successful as SHR would be a boon to the smaller outfit.
 
Instead, Bowyer had a single top-20 finish (18th at Auto Club Speedway) and an average finish of nearly 29th heading into Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Bowyer would finish eighth Sunday, for his best showing of the season.
 
For a driver who has rarely been outside the top 20 in points in 10 seasons of full-time competition, it’s been a frustrating start.
 
Contacted by NASCAR.com, Stewart-Haas officials said via email this week that “There isn’t a formal alliance between Stewart-Haas Racing and HScott Motorsports, but SHR does collaborate with HScott and offers technical support when it can.”
 
HScott has obtained limited technical support from SHR since 2015 while also purchasing many of the cars in its fleet from the organization.
 
But those close to the HScott situation say the technological tether that tied the teams of Bowyer and Annett to SHR appears to have been severed with the Ford announcement.
 
It may also be a byproduct of the growing divide between the Chevrolet-branded Hendrick group and SHR as the latter outfit begins working toward the manufacturer change. At some point this season, the data sharing and flow of information between Hendrick and SHR will begin to cease; HScott, with a driver soon to be making the move to a rival Ford team, is perhaps caught in between.
 
Changes in the relationship between Hendrick and Stewart-Haas were noted earlier this year by Stewart, who said, “the dynamic of it was kind of already changing this year anyway” and that “the technical side of it has changed quite a bit going into this season.”
 
“It’s like parents who are going through a divorce,” one HScott representative said of the situation, “and this team is caught in the middle.”
 
Stewart-Haas fields four Sprint Cup Series teams and its drivers have won two of the last five series championships, all under the Chevrolet banner. Its engines and chassis come from Hendrick, as well as technical information and extensive engineering support.
 
Hendrick Motorsports fields four Sprint Cup Series teams and has won 11 Sprint Cup titles overall and six of the last 10.
 
Although its chassis currently come through SHR, HScott leases engines from Hendrick, an arrangement that was already in place when Scott purchased the team from former owner James Finch in September of 2013. But the link between Hendrick and HScott ends there, according to Hendrick officials. The Hendrick/HScott relationship, they say, has not changed in light of the Stewart-Haas Ford announcement.
 
In a statement provided to NASCAR.com, HScott officials noted the abundance of adjustments the organization faced heading into the 2016 season.
 
“The challenges so far this season have primarily been the elements of change. Change has been a constant and it’s had an effect. The team relocated its shop from (Spartanburg) South Carolina to (Mooresville) North Carolina in January. We have a new driver and crew chief combination, a new fleet of cars and a new aero package.” 
 
The support system between Hendrick and Stewart-Haas, and Stewart-Haas and HScott, isn’t unusual. Similar alliances abound in NASCAR, each varying to some degree.
 
Furniture Row Racing had a “technical alliance” in place with Richard Childress Racing before this season. When the Denver-based team made the switch to Toyota, it aligned itself with Joe Gibbs Racing, which provides chassis as well as engineering support. A comparable arrangement exits between the Ford entities of Team Penske and Wood Brothers Racing.
 
That teams would begin to “wean” themselves from such alliances as they work their way through the process of changing manufacturers is understandable considering what’s at stake — not the least of which is proprietary information and data that cannot be obtained without extensive research and development, and at much cost.
 
While the current partners have benefited from their individual relationships, at the end of the day it remains a very competitive business.
 
All of which leaves HScott and its teams trying to make the best of what appears to have become an unexpectedly harsh situation.