Stewart-Haas Racing’s Swan Song: Drivers Bid Farewell As Team Closes
Since the bombshell announcement back in May that Stewart-Haas Racing would be closing its doors at the end of the season , the once-powerful ship has been slowly but surely taking on water.
Launched in 2002 by Gene Haas and bolstered by the addition of NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart as co-owner in 2009, the team racked up 102 wins and three championships across NASCAR's top tiers. But after losing its star driver at the end of 2023, followed by a string of major sponsor departures, whispers of trouble in the ranks became louder. Rumors swirled about selling off Charters, a sure sign that things weren't looking good. Then came May 28, when the official announcement hit: Stewart-Haas would bow out at the end of 2024.
Gene Haas will stick around, sure, but with only one car and under a new banner as the Haas Factory team starting in 2025, with Cole Custer behind the wheel. Meanwhile, the four current drivers will be left scrambling for lifeboats.
From the outside, the fall of SHR has been little more than press releases and social media noise. Three of the four drivers have already lined up gigs for 2025, but let's be honest, those were just words on a page until now.
This weekend, though, it gets real. Very real. On Sunday, NASCAR will close out its season in Avondale, Arizona, just outside Phoenix. And while most eyes will be glued to crowning the 2024 champion, for Stewart-Haas Racing, this will be the end. The SHR crew will be pushing their cars into the haulers one last time, headed back to Kannapolis, North Carolina, never to return. And for the drivers, the faces of the team, it will be their last race in SHR colors.
When Josh Berry was announced as Kevin Harvick's successor, the hype was off the charts. The "next big thing," a prodigy ready to set the Cup Series on fire. Well, the flames never quite materialized in his first full-time season. But how much further could he have gone with a team that once took Harvick to multiple wins and a championship? We'll never know.
"It's most definitely been a whirlwind over the past, really, two years just taking it all in," Berry said. "But honestly, I'm just really grateful for my time at SHR and the opportunity I got to drive the 4 car and race in the Cup Series. It was just such a life-changing opportunity for me."
Berry will join the Wood Brothers Racing team next season, taking the wheel of the No. 21 Ford. While there's potential there, let's be honest, the Wood Brothers aren't what they used to be. Not even close to the level SHR reached in its prime. But for now, Berry will take the wheel for one last ride with the team, alongside the people who've been in the trenches with him all season.
"I'm just thankful for the opportunity to get to race with those guys and learn from them and get to compete with them," Berry said.
For Noah Gragson, SHR was a lifeline of sorts. Like Berry, he was positioned for Cup series stardom stepping up on the big stage first with Legacy Motor Club, the team that claims among its co-owners Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson, both NASCAR Hall of Famers and 7-time Cup series champions. A social media transgression, however, saw him fired from that team. SHR threw him a life preserver in the form of the No. 10 Ford once raced by Danica Patrick and Aric Almirola.
"I'm just extremely grateful for the opportunity that Tony (Stewart, co-owner) and Greg Zipadelli (chief competition officer) gave me to be able to get back into the sport, and to do it at the highest level of the Cup Series means the world to me," Gragson said. "I'm tremendously grateful for that, tremendously grateful for the friendships and experiences and memories that we've been able to make over the past year. It's allowed me to get back on my feet in the Cup Series, and we've had some strong runs and it's given me my confidence back."
Gragson will move to Front Row Motorsports in 2025.
"It's definitely going to be emotional at Phoenix when that checkered flag drops," he said. "And I've only been there for a year."
Ryan Preece is almost the odd man odd in the SHR driver lineup. Though there are rumors that he could be announced as a third driver that will be added to the Roush-Fenway Keselowski Racing group, nothing's official yet. The accomplished short track, and modified racer hasn't always been in the same spotlight as a Josh Berry, but he came to the team as a test driver and was given the reins of the No. 41 Ford.
"For me, the May, June, July months were tough, really tough," he said. "I think tough for everybody, tough for our team, but what I appreciate the most is my group of team members and that the guys haven't quit. They haven't quit and I think it's shown. It's almost built this thick skin layer on us because, when you look at late August, September, October, we've been strong. Have we been winning like we want to be? No. I don't think our company is there. But I also think that we've persevered in times when everybody's just like, 'Well, fu*k it, we're moving on to our next deal.'"
Maybe no driver will lose more than Chase Briscoe. Growing up in Indiana, he idolized Tony Stewart. To be given the chance to drive the same car, with the same number as his hero? A dream come true. But Sunday, he'll wake up from that dream.
"May feels like it was just the other day, honestly, when we found out the news," Briscoe said. "So it's crazy that we're at the very end, right?
"To know that it's all coming to an end is definitely bittersweet. I was telling the guys last weekend at Martinsville, where we were eight days away from the company literally locking the doors, and we were still able to bring a car that, honestly, should've sat on the pole."
Briscoe lifted the spirits of the whole SHR camp when he won at Darlington Raceway in September, putting himself in the Playoffs and giving the team hope, even if they didn't get too far. Those people behind the scenes, the ones without hero cards or autograph requests, are the real heart and soul of SHR.
"I think that's the thing that I take away most from being at this organization," Preece said. "The group of people that we've been surrounded by, and the perseverance that each and every one of them has. You know, wherever they end up going, whatever team, they're going to be lucky to have them because they've taken a tough time and made the most of it."
"It's definitely going to be emotional at Phoenix when that checkered flag drops, and I've only been there for a year," Gragson said. "I can't imagine what it's like for other guys and gals who have been there for a much longer period of time. We're one group, we're in it to the end, and just extremely grateful. It's going to be a bittersweet week, for sure."
Of all the drivers, it seems that Briscoe landed the firmest on his feet. He will move to one of NASCAR's biggest teams, Joe Gibbs Racing taking over the No. 19 Toyota from Martin Truex Jr. who will step away from fulltime driving next season.
In a bit of an ironic twist, Truex himself came to JGR from a team that also shuttered, Furniture Row Racing, which closed at the end of the 2015 season after Truex delivered them a Cup series championship. Since joining JGR he's scored 31 wins. It's a path that Chase Briscoe wouldn't mind traveling. First though comes the final race with Stewart-Haas Racing and the ship slips below the waves.
"I can't believe it's coming to an end," Briscoe said. "It's definitely a sad ending to it all, and it's definitely going to be a tough weekend."
