Tony Stewart to scale back USAC racing program in 2010

November 21, 1:59 PMSprint & Midget Car Racing ExaminerRichard Manfredi

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Tony Stewart announced on Saturday that he is scaling back his USAC racing operations in 2010.

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Friday's announcement of Kraig Kinser's departure is apparently not the only major change coming to Tony Stewart Racing. Speaking to media members on the eve of the NASCAR Sprint Cup series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Stewart said that Tony Stewart Racing would be significantly scaling back its USAC racing program for the 2010 season.

According to a transcript of the session available at Motorsport.com, Stewart said that his team would only have one non-winged sprint car team next season. In 2009, the team fielded cars for two drivers: series champion Levi Jones and Tracy Hines. Stewart did not indicate during the press session who would be driving the sprint car.

In addition, Stewart said that his team was suspending its midget racing operations. Jones and Hines each drove in select USAC midget races in 2009, with Hines winning the King Doodlebug Classic at Knoxville in May.

“We're going to scale our USAC program back to two Silver Crown cars and one dirt Sprint Car,” he said. “We're not going to compete in the pavement Sprint Car races, but we'll only have one team there and we won't have any Midget teams next year.”

Stewart also addressed the release of Kinser in the press meeting, stating that the main issue was a lack of performance, particularly in latter part of the season. He also mentioned that Kinser and his teammate, four-time World of Outlaws champion Donny Schatz, often ran completely different car set-ups, which may have been partially responsible for Kinser's disappointing results.

Kraig and Donny ran two different packages, chassis-wise and engine-wise and we're trying to figure out how to bring that together where both guys are running the same chassis and same engine package,” Stewart said. “So we're trying to find a driver that likes the J&J car like Donny does and somebody that we feel will be an asset to Donny as a teammate and be able to work together with him. So that's what we're working toward."