Tony Stewart’s team is running up against multiple roadblocks this season. After their veteran drivers, Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola, bid adieu to Stewart-Haas Racing, the team is in a dire situation. Their most recent dilemma unfolded at Dover Motor Speedway. And while the team would have wanted to forget the race soon, the fans didn’t help the case with their harsh words. 

What caused SHR’s downfall at the Dover Motor Speedway?

To give you a quick recap of the race, it was SHR’s No. 41 Ford, driven by Ryan Preece, which became the first to leave on the 66th lap after a worrisome fire engulfed it. Digging deeper into the problem, the #10 team’s crew chief, Drew Blickensderfer, cleared NASCAR of any blame and accepted the responsibility.

He said, “That was self-inflicted. The bolts between the headers and the collectors keeping everything together. They were not installed correctly…” He also observed that the same technical issue could have affected the rest of the SHR cars, potentially leading to more Preece-like accidents. 

Safe to say, Preece seems to be in a rut, that too a fiery one. Even last year, the driver was part of a horrific crash. In the Summer Daytona race, his car flipped multiple times before it landed on the grass, battered and emitting smoke. Many questioned how the driver managed to climb out of the ordeal with just a bit of bruising. 

But coming back to the current season, Tony Stewart’s team has been in a tough spot. For instance, back in March, while returning from Phoenix Raceway, one of its haulers got caught in an accident. Now Dover also brought no luck as Ryan Preece again faced a dangerous situation. As smoke had gotten inside the cockpit of #41, a visibly worried Preece, after the race, said: “I felt like I was on fire.”

While former SHR driver, Kevin Harvick, denounced the “cr*ppy parts” of the car for this mishap, we already know what Blickensderfer had to say. Based on the crew chief’s words, the fans took the liberty to point out SHR’s massive slip-up and throw some criticism their way.

Somewhat siding with Harvick, NASCAR fans blamed SHR for their lowly outing at Dover

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Commenting under the development posted on Reddit, a fan plainly stated, “Idk. Maybe they just fu**ed up.” Another fan called out the team for being inefficient. “SHR really gotta get their shit together. feels like a lot of their issues are self inflicted. all the penalties and poor strategy decisions. drivers can only do so much.”

Feeling bad for Preece, someone wrote, “all the penalties and poor strategy decisions. drivers can only do so much.”

More fans jumped on the scene to show empathy for the #41 driver. They said, “Murphy’s Law of NASCAR: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong; and it’ll happen to Ryan Preece.” Another fan wrote, “Poor bastard may be the unluckiest NASCAR driver to ever live.”

The fans may be harsh, but are they wrong? Well, Tony Stewart’s team faltering on race tracks is nothing new. Back in 2020, Kevin Harvick lost track position on the same race track because of technical issues. 

When a loose wheel cost Harvick a race win

In August 2020, Kevin Harvick displayed tenacity and pace capable of snagging a win at Dover. However, the #4 car faced several issues over the 311-lap race. A pit road mishap led to a loose left rear tire, and the second pit stop dropped him to 29th place. But even though Tony Stewart’s team worked on his car, it got too loose and could not find the ideal balance for the rest of the race.

Post-race, Kevin Harvick explained, “I wasn’t very good all day. Overall, our Mobil 1 Mustang just never would turn and then we got it so it wouldn’t turn and get too loose.” He added, “We just could not get the front end of our car to turn off the corner and at the end it just started sliding the back everywhere and it wouldn’t turn off the corner.”

Stewart-Haas Racing continues to face such technical problems. Hopefully, they will learn from their mistakes and not risk Ryan Preece falling into danger again.