![Chase Briscoe Stewart-Haas]()
A disappointing end to what was once one of
NASCAR's top teams.
Tony Stewart became an owner-driver in the NASCAR Cup Series 2009 when he bought 50% of Haas-CNC Racing and took over the #14 car for the renamed Stewart-Haas Racing team.
And SHR had quite a bit of success early on, with Tony Stewart himself taking home the Cup Series championship in 2011 and Kevin Harvick winning his only championship in NASCAR’s top series back in 2014.
But over the past couple years, Stewart-Haas has fallen off quite a bit when it comes to performance on the track. With the retirement of veteran Kevin Harvick, the team currently fields cars for Chase Briscoe, Ryan Preece, Noah Gragson and rookie Josh Berry. And of those four drivers, the only one with a win in the Cup Series is Briscoe, whose sole trip to victory lane came at Phoenix in 2022.
The only driver that SHR had in the playoffs last year was Harvick, who was eliminated after the first round. And of their other three cars, none finished higher in the final points standings than 22nd, with Briscoe coming in at a disappointing 30th.
Now, the team seems to have made some small improvements this year, with Gragson running the best of the 4 cars and Berry showing some decent performance at times. But for a top NASCAR Cup Series team, it was clear that something was wrong over at Stewart-Haas.
And after weeks of rumors and speculation that the team was looking to sell some or all of their charters for next season, the team made it official today and announced to their employees that they would be shutting down after the 2024 season.
https://twitter.com/MattWeaverRA/status/1795551366825312587
It's not unexpected, as Stewart has been focused mainly on his NHRA team recently and Haas focused on F1. And with no owner invested in the team on a regular basis, it's hard to compete at NASCAR's top level.
In a joint statement, the owners basically confirmed that they weren't able (or willing) to give the team the attention it needs:
https://twitter.com/bobpockrass/status/1795553128248402166
But it's a disappointing end to what was one of the most exciting teams in NASCAR at one point, a team that's fielded cars for drivers like Stewart and Harvick, Ryan Newman, Danica Patrick, Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer.
It's currently unclear where the four current SHR drivers will end up next season, with Berry and Gragson both being in their first year with the team. But Briscoe is rumored to be the top choice for the Wood Brothers to replace Harrison Burton in the #21 car when he's inevitably let go after this season, and with four charters on the market teams will be looking to expand their roster and will likely look at the current Stewart-Haas lineup when scouting talent.
Front Row Motorsports is expected to make a bid for at least one charter, and Trackhouse Racing has four drivers currently signed for 2025 while currently only having two charters. (Shane van Gisbergen is currently racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for Kaulig Motorsports, while Trackhouse loaned Zane Smith to Spire Motorsports for the season). 23XI, the team owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, is also rumored to be in the market for one of the charters.
We'll still have to wait and see how things shake out, but from the news today it's clear that NASCAR is going to look very different next year without one of its major teams on the track.
