The great pains Tony Stewart has taken to absolve crew chief Chad Johnston from blame for Stewart's frustrating 2015 season were erased by a horrible Crown Royal 400 race at the Brickyard and the driver's silence afterward.
The Indianapolis Star chronicled Stewart's day on Sunday after running the fastest lap in qualifying a day earlier. Stewart, who has yet to secure a top-five finish this year, ran strong early but then was stripped of his momentum on a series of restarts and pit stops late to finish in 28th place.
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He left the Indianapolis Motor Speedway without commenting to reporters after the race.
"Words don't even explain it," said Stewart's crew chief, Chad Johnston, who blamed nine restarts that took place during the race.
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"Just the restarts," Johnston said, according to the Star. "We struggled on restarts, whether we were on tires, not on tires, two tires, no tires. We just struggled on restarts."
The report also said that Johnston took criticism on social media and, indirectly, from NBC commentators, for the team's pit and race strategy.
Stewart, who was running second after 83 laps and third on lap 124, fell back to 25th after 130 laps and never challenged again, republic.com reported, and isportsweb.com mentioned Johnston's questionable strategy.
"The Crown Royal 400 was going fairly well for Stewart, with the #14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet hovering in and around the top-five for a decent chunk of the event," isportsweb.com reported. "However, some questionable late-race pit strategy calls from crew chief Chad Johnston eliminated any chance for a third Stewart Brickyard win. He eventually floundered to a 28th-place finish. Yikes."
Johnston has been the target of at least questioning for Stewart's subpar season, but "Smoke" has defended his crew chief.
"I still really like working with Chad Johnston, and I don't think he's holding me back," Stewart said two weeks ago of his crew chief, who joined him for the 2014 season, to Sporting News. "It's just a matter of me figuring (the new NASCAR rules package) out."
Johnston on Sunday said only that the team felt frustrated with a car it felt had a good chance to win.
"All in all, the car had a lot of speed in it," Johnston said. "We just struggled on restarts. With not being able to pass and being on a groove-and-a-half racetrack, it makes it really hard to lose spots on the restarts.
"With the new aero package, (the cars) go from driving decent to being crazy-loose in traffic."
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