Co-owner Gene Haas and Tony Stewart issued a joint assertion on Tuesday outlining the “tough determination” that they made to shut SHR at finish of the 2024 season.
Among the many 300 or so staff affected by the announcement had been the group’s six drivers – Chase Briscoe, Josh Berry, Noah Gragson and Ryan Preece within the Cup Sequence and Cole Custer and Riley Herbst within the Xfinity Sequence.
An SHR spokesman stated the Xfinity program is anticipated to proceed to function in 2025 in some type, however not as a SHR entity.
The longer term for SHR’s Cup drivers stays way more fluid, particularly since groups have but to succeed in a brand new constitution settlement with NASCAR that extends past this season. SHR presently holds 4 such charters.
Briscoe, who gained his first Cup race with SHR in 2022, posted a video on his X (previously Twitter) account after being knowledgeable of the group’s determination.
In it, Briscoe says, “I by no means thought today would come. You understand, I’ve been at Stewart-Haas for the final seven years now. It’s in truth turned like dwelling to me and seems like a household. And simply what an unimaginable group of women and men at this place that simply make it really feel like dwelling and simply make you take pleasure in coming to work every day.”
As for his future past this season in NASCAR, Briscoe stated he has “no thought what I’m doing.”
“It’s going to be an attention-grabbing time these subsequent couple of weeks simply looking for even what’s accessible on the market and hopefully can land on my toes and proceed to race within the Cup collection,” he stated.
“So yeah, I respect all of the all of the help, all of the love and yeah, we’ll see what occurs going ahead.”
SHR entered 2024 with 4 younger drivers and only one Cup win between them. Though they’ve proven slight general enchancment compared to final yr, the group continues to be nowhere close to its degree of prior success.
Briscoe is presently the very best driver within the collection standings at sixteenth, with one top-five and 5 top-10 finishes in 14 races to this point.
Josh Berry, a rookie driver within the Cup Sequence and the motive force of the No. 4 machine, reacted to the information as nicely: “Immediately was a troublesome day for all of us. It’s fairly arduous to seek out the best phrases. I’m pleased with our group for the way they’ve been dealing with this and can going ahead. RC is a real chief. We’ll maintain racing our hearts out each Sunday.”
Riley Herbst posted an announcement on his X account thanking the SHR group for hiring him “at my lowest.”
“I’ll be without end grateful to Tony and Gene for serving to me develop, not solely as a racer however as an individual,” he stated.
Added defending NASCAR Xfinity Sequence champion Cole Custer: “Fairly coronary heart breaking to see. The stretch that Tony, Gene, and everybody at SHR had was extraordinarily spectacular. We’re gonna struggle the remainder of the yr to complete robust.”
Veteran crew chief Rodney Childers, who gained the 2014 title with Kevin Harvick and is accountable for almost all of SHR’s race wins, posted the next message on social media:
