Stewart-Haas Racing will close its shop at the end of this season, co-owners Tony Stewart and Gene Haas announced Tuesday.
In a joint statement, they said:
“We have made the difficult decision to close Stewart-Haas Racing at the conclusion of the 2024 season. It is a decision that did not come easily, nor was it made quickly.
“Racing is a labor-intensive, humbling sport. It requires unwavering commitment and vast resources, with a 365-day mindset to be better than everyone else. It’s part of what makes success so rewarding.
“But the commitment needed to extract maximum performance while providing sustainability is incredibly demanding, and we’ve reached a point in our respective personal and business lives where it’s time to pass the torch.
“We’re proud of all the wins and championships we’ve earned since joining together in 2009, but even more special is the culture we built and the friendships we forged as we committed to a common cause – winning races and collecting trophies.
“That is the same commitment we made to our personnel, our partners and our fans coming into this year, and that commitment will remain through the season finale at Phoenix.
“We have tremendous respect and appreciation for all of our employees, and we will work diligently to assist them during this transition to find new opportunities beyond the 2024 race season.”
Stewart-Haas Racing has four Cup teams and two Xfinity teams. SHR fields cars in Cup for Chase Briscoe, Ryan Preece, Noah Gragson and Josh Berry. SHR fields Xfinity cars for reigning series champion Cole Custer and Riley Herbst.
“Crazy time,” Briscoe said in a video posted to social medial. “I never thought this day would come. I’ve been at Stewart-Haas for the last seven years now. It’s, truthfully, become like home to me and feels like a family and just what an incredible group of men and women at this place that makes it feel like home and just makes you enjoy coming to work each and every day.
” ... It’s crazy knowing that this will be the last year that I drive the 14 car, the car that I looked up to growing up and, obviously, idolized growing up. Crazy times, for sure. Never thought it would happen.
“I have no idea what I’m doing going forward. It’s going to be an interesting time these next couple of weeks just trying to find even what’s available out there and hopefully can land on my feet and continue to race in the Cup Series.”
Haas started the team in 2002 but it wasn’t until 2003 that the team ran a full Cup season with a variety of drivers.
Haas and Tony Stewart announced in July 2008 that they would form Stewart-Haas Racing beginning with the 2009 season. Stewart left Joe Gibbs Racing to join SHR in 2009. The organization ran two cars from 2009-12 (Stewart and Ryan Newman were the drivers) before expanding to a third car in 2013, adding Danica Patrick.
SHR became a four-car team in 2014 with a lineup of Stewart, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick and Patrick.
It was granted four charters in 2016 when NASCAR and team owners created the system.
Stewart won the 2011 Cup title and Harvick won the 2014 crown with the organization, but it has not had a driver finish in the top 10 in points in the past two seasons.
SHR’s most recent victory came in August 2022 by Harvick at Richmond. Eleven other Cup organizations have won since that race.
SHR switched from Chevrolet to Ford for the 2017 season and had been a Ford team since. The organization had been with Chevrolet since its inception and had formed an alliance with Hendrick Motorsports.