The NASCAR community is bidding farewell to an influential chapter as Stewart-Haas Racing concludes its operations after a 16-year presence in the racing world.
Founded in 2009, Stewart-Haas Racing was the brainchild of NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart and Gene Haas, the founder of Haas Automation. The team was born from Haas CNC Racing, which had been competing since 2002, and was rebranded upon Stewart’s entry.
Over the years, Stewart-Haas Racing accumulated two prestigious NASCAR Cup Series championships—one with Stewart in 2011 and the other with Kevin Harvick in 2014. Throughout its tenure, the team boasted 70 race victories and established itself as a force with 339 top-five and 695 top-ten finishes.
The emotional resonance of this closure is palpable, especially for Kevin Harvick, who helmed the Stewart-Haas No. 4 car for ten years. Reflecting on the disbanding of the team, Harvick described the situation as “somewhat surreal.”
During an episode of the “Harvick Happy Hour” podcast, Harvick explained:
“It’s somewhat surreal with everything that has happened this year.
“And when you look at just Stewart-Haas Racing gone, like today it’s gone. Those guys aren’t even allowed back in the shop. They had to drop their computers off, they took their company vehicles and they’ll never go back in the shop.
“Their offices have been cleaned out for a couple weeks and now they are in a weird circumstance like this, all those guys are starting at their new jobs tomorrow and Wednesday. It’s been hard to kind of take all that in and really realize that Stewart-Haas Racing is gone.”
He added:
“I’m glad Tony was there to be able to talk to everybody and be a part of the last event. And also for Riley [Herbst] to go back to Victory Lane. What a way to end that, and now it transfers over to Haas Factory Team. We’ll see if it’s the same type of successful organization that is has been for so many years.
“What a special place with the environment that came with Stewart-Haas Racing. It wasn’t like anywhere else. It was a racer’s mentality in everything that we did. And allowed me to win a championship and work with a lot of great people for a decade. Hard to believe that it is gone today.”
Tony Stewart himself recounted the team’s journey with pride. He commented to Sirius XM NASCAR Radio:
“When you think of how it started and where it ended up at the end of the day. I mean we did some pretty remarkable things as a group and had some great people that just all they cared about was winning races.
“That’s all they boiled down to. So, it’s nice to have a group like that, do the things we did and just a hell of a journey.”
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