On Tuesday, crew co-owners Gene Haas and Tony Stewart launched a joint assertion explaining their determination to shutter the group after 15 years.
“Now we have made the troublesome determination to shut Stewart-Haas Racing on the conclusion of the 2024 season. It’s a determination that didn’t come simply, nor was it made shortly. Racing is a labor-intensive, humbling sport. It requires unwavering dedication and huge sources, with a 365-day mindset to be higher than everybody else. It’s a part of what makes success so rewarding.
“However the dedication wanted to extract most efficiency whereas offering sustainability is extremely demanding, and we’ve reached a degree in our respective private and enterprise lives the place it’s time to cross the torch.
“We’re happy with all of the wins and championships we’ve earned since becoming a member of collectively in 2009, however much more particular is the tradition we constructed and the friendships we cast as we dedicated to a standard trigger – profitable races and accumulating trophies. That’s the similar dedication we made to our personnel, our companions and our followers coming into this 12 months, and that dedication will stay by way of the season finale at Phoenix.
“Now we have super respect and appreciation for all of our workers, and we’ll work diligently to help them throughout this transition to search out new alternatives past the 2024 race season.”
The charters?
Tuesday’s assertion made no point out of the 4 charters Hass and Stewart presently maintain within the Cup Sequence.
The charters, created with the beginning of the 2016 season, ensures a crew entry in all 36 points-paying races every year and units a minimal assured payout for every race. The payouts can change primarily based on the place the crew ranks in proprietor factors.
Nonetheless, the present constitution settlement expires on the conclusion of this 12 months and there may be but no new deal. Meaning, in essence, there aren’t any charters for SHR to promote till an settlement is reached.
For the reason that charters had been launched, they’ve elevated greater than 10 occasions in worth. Spire Motorsports bought Stay Quick Motorsports’ constitution reportedly for round $40 million final 12 months.
There was an air of uncertainty round SHR’s future for a while.
As soon as a dominant power within the Cup Sequence, the crew has did not win a Cup race in almost two years. When Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola retired from full-time competitors on the finish of final 12 months, main backers Busch Beer and Smithfield left as effectively.
The crew entered 2024 with 4 younger drivers and only one Cup win between them. Though they’ve proven slight total enchancment compared to final 12 months, the crew continues to be nowhere close to the place a four-car operation is predicted to be.
Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports are the one different groups that possesses 4 charters. Each have received a number of races and maintain seven of the highest eight spots within the championship standings. The very best SHR driver is Chase Briscoe in sixteenth.
The information leaves unclear futures for Briscoe, in addition to his team-mates Noah Gragson, Josh Berry, and Ryan Preece. There’s additionally intrigue involving the way forward for SHR’s veteran crew chiefs, particularly Rodney Childers, who has scored 40 wins from atop the pit field, incomes the majority of SHR’s victories with Harvick. Beforehand, he guided Michael Waltrip Racing to its first-ever win with David Reutimann in 2009, in addition to its final victory with Brian Vickers in 2013.
SHR has 69 wins on the Cup stage and final visited Victory Lane with Harvick at Richmond Raceway in August 2022. Stewart delivered the crew its first championship in 2011 whereas Harvick earned the crew’s second title in 2014.
The autumn-off for SHR has been staggering. It received 26 races between 2018 and 2020, solely to win a complete of 4 within the three seasons that adopted.
In 2020, all 4 SHR drivers made the playoffs. In 2023, three of their 4 groups missed the minimize. Harvick was the one driver to make the 16-driver discipline final 12 months however was eradicated after the primary spherical.
Lingering questions
The lack of the SHR group would additionally depart a major gap in Ford Efficiency’s NASCAR Cup program. SHR moved from Chevrolet to Ford starting with the 2017 season and has turn into one of many producer’s most profitable organizations.
SHR’s present Ford deal was set to run out on the finish of this season.
SHR additionally operates a two-car Xfinity Sequence program with Cole Custer and Riley Herbst because the drivers. An SHR spokesman stated the Xfinity program is predicted to proceed to function in 2025 in some kind, however not as a SHR entity.
Custer, 26, received the Xfinity championship in 2023 and stays in competition once more this 12 months. Herbst, 25, picked up his first collection win final 12 months driving for SHR and stays within the playoff hunt this season.
