Alliance with Hendrick key to Tony Stewart's surge

Nate Ryan | USA TODAY Sports

LONG POND, Pa. — It had been 30 races and 11 months since Tony Stewart visited victory lane last week at Dover International Speedway.

The three-time champion, whose oft-ornery persona belies his media savvy, still didn't miss a beat as he smoothly delivered a recitation of gratitude for a familiar list of parties for his 48th Sprint Cup victory.

The sponsors! The pit crew! The fans!

Doug Duchardt!

Who?

The vice president of development for Hendrick Motorsports was driving his daughter to a college orientation in North Carolina when his phone began buzzing with messages that he'd been name-checked by Stewart.

It was reaffirmation of the strengthening of the relationship between Stewart-Haas Racing and Hendrick Motorsports, which supplies the Chevrolet chassis and engines

"This sport is always about relationships and how you work together," Duchardt told USA TODAY Sports before Sprint Cup practice Saturday at Pocono Raceway. "We've done a good job the past few months of trying to help each other."

It's been indicative in Stewart's recent results. After the worst start of his career left him mired outside the top 20 in points for most of the season, Stewart has notched three consecutive top-15 finishes that have turned his fortunes considerably. The Dover victory propelled him to 16th in the standings and the catbird seat for one of two Chase for the Sprint Cup wild-card berths with 13 races remaining in the "regular season" before the 10-race title playoff begins.

Heading into Sunday's Party in the Poconos 400, Stewart finally seems to be shaking his slump, but he wasn't so enamored Saturday when asked to expound on how the Hendrick relationship had keyed the turnaround.

"We've just been working hard together like we always have," he said. "That relationship hasn't changed."

But the communication is better?

"Yeah," Stewart said before dashing off to his No. 14 SS for the final practice session on the 2.5-mile track.

Though the three-time champion might project a combustible and edginess in interviews, his words always are chosen carefully and with a purpose — particularly when made on national TV just after he takes the checkered flag. When he famously referred to shedding "dead weight" as the key to a September 2011 win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, there was someone who got the message (Stewart never clarified the reference).

His shoutout to Duchardt after Dover was directed just as pointedly.

Stewart had hinted earlier in the season that his team needed to lean more heavily on gleaning setup information from Hendrick, which employs an open-book philosophy of sharing its technology and trade secrets with SHR.

"I'm there to help facilitate it," Duchardt said. "So if questions come, I help make sure, 'Hey, be ready that these guys might need specific help in different areas.' You just kind of grease the skids a little.

"When you're struggling, or feel you're not having the speed you should, it's always good to have some people to bounce things off. We've been trying to work more closely together (with Stewart-Haas). I think slowly, you've seen them starting to run better."

As a former General Motors executive, Duchardt previously had worked with SHR competition director Greg Zipadelli from 1999-2004 when Stewart's former crew chief raced Chevrolets at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Stewart's current crew chief, Steve Addington, also had worked at JGR and Penske before taking over his new role.

Before SHR, neither Addington nor Zipadelli had much experience working in an alliance with a rival team.

Stewart-Haas Racing also lost its primary liaison to Hendrick last year when it replaced crew chief Darian Grubb, a former longtime Hendrick employee, after he guided Stewart to the 2011 championship.

"Darian understood what we were trying to do to a certain extent and how we worked," Duchardt said. "With Steve and Greg, it was new. Steve has a good rapport with all our crew chiefs and is friends with a couple of them, so there never was an issue as far as that. As in any relationship, you build trust and an understanding of how it works. I don't think there was ever anytime that Steve would ask something, and we wouldn't oblige or vice versa. It was just trying to understand how it could work.

"Sometimes it's hard to just jump off a limb and say, 'Well, that's working for these guys. Let's go try it.' That's the challenge of this sport."

Follow Nate Ryan on Twitter @nateryan