FANTASY NASCAR Racin

GENE HAAS - 11/12/1953
TONY STEWART - 5/20/1971
STEWART-HAAS RACING - a NASCAR racing team based in Kannapolis, North Carolina. The team is co-owned by Haas Automation founder Gene Haas and three-time Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart, and was founded as Haas CNC Racing in 2003 after Haas, whose company was a sponsor of Hendrick Motorsports, elected to form his own team. In 2009, Stewart, who had been driving for Joe Gibbs Racing but was not happy with the team's switch to Toyota, wanted to get back to racing for Chevrolet. Haas, who has fielded General Motors cars since the team was founded, made a deal for Stewart to drive for his team and in return receive a 50% stake in the team. Since it’s beginnings in 2009 the team has shown

success. As 2009 kicked off just two teams were fielded; One for Stewart and one for Ryan Newman. Stewart visited victory lane four times that season; while Newman had five top five finishes with a best of second in the rain-shortened Coke 600. 2010 – 2012 saw Newman post one win each season; while Stewart would win twice in 2010; three in 2012; and win five of the last ten races in 2011 to win the CUP Championship. 2013 saw the group expand to three teams. Danica Patrick who had raced a full season in the Xfinity series seemed to be rushed up to the Cup level too quickly because she had a solid full time sponsor in “Go-Daddy”. She kicked off the season on a high note winning the pole for the Daytona 500. She would finish eighth in the race; her only top ten finish of the year. Once again Newman won one race, while

Stewart ran into problems. He had posted one win before being injured in an sprint type car race. Stewart was racing when a driver in front of him spun, and he had little reaction time. It was either plow into the other car right in the drivers compartment; or make an evasive move to help protect the other driver. Stewart cranked it hard right and ended up taking a major hit to his leg. It was severely broken and he would miss the remainder of the 2013 season. 2014 saw the team make changes again. Even though Newman had won races every year he’d been with Stewart-Hass; he decided to go elsewhere. In the long run Newman went to driver for Richard Childress racing; while Childress driver Kevin Harvick moved from RCR to drive for Stewart-Haas.

Harvick was the only driver to win any races; but he had several races he dominated and had some sort of bad luck keeping him from claiming the more wins. When it was all said and done Harvick claimed the 2014 Cup Championship winning the last two races at Phoenix and Homestead. The following year Harvick was again the only driver on the team to visit victory lane. He won three times and would finish second in the points. Kyle Busch won the last race of the season and Harvick finished a close second to just miss a second straight Championship. Kurt Busch added two wins; but Patrick and Stewart had dismal season as the pair only combined for five Top 10 finishes. 2016 would be Stewart's final year as a driver. He had a rough season; but grabbed a victory at Sonoma to qualify for that years Chase. Kurt Busch won one time; and Harvick posted four

wins. However, none of the drivers could finish better than seventh in the points. With Stewart stepping aside to be "just" an owner; driver Clint Bowyer was hired to fill the seat of the #14. Kurt Busch claimed the Daytona 500 to kick off the season; but only showed occasionally ran well the rest of the season. Harvick would claim the teams only other two wins and he finished third in the points. Bowyer almost won on three occasions as he finished second at Sonoma, Bristol and Daytona in the Summer. Patrick actually had a decent season on the track. She ran many of the races between 10th and 20th positions; but on many occasions she would have mechanical issues or be involved

in a wreck not of her making, relegating her to a poor finish. She managed only one Top 10 on the year. Late in the season her sponsor announced they would not return the following year leaving her without a ride for 2018. She decided to retire and the end of the year. She has plans to do the "Danica Double" in 2018; Running the Daytona 500 and Indy 500 as her final two races. As for the rest of Stewart's team; Kurt Busch, Harvick and Bowyer all returned, with Aric Almirola will taking over the wheel of the #10 car. Stewart--Haas was the pinnacle of success in NASCAR in 2018. They added Aric Almirola when Danica Patrick retired and every driver on the team managed to win at least one race. Almirola was close several times, but something came up to deprive him of the win. He finally broke through at Talladega. Clint Bowyer saw his winless

streak broken as he had been sinless since the 2012 season. Bowyer managed to get two wins. One came at Martinsville; while the other came at a rain shortened at Michigan. Kurt Busch added one race win to the team total when he grabbed a win at Bristol. Kevin Harvick was the class of the team and was one of the drivers that became known as 'the big three". Kyle Busch had eight wins in 2018; while Martin TRuex added four more. Harvick also had eight wins. He ran off a string of three wins early in the season. He won two more times when the circuit visited Dover and Kansas, before added three more visited to victory circle before the season closed. In addition to his eight wins, he added four second place finishes; 23 top

fives and 29 top tens. All four drivers made it into the Chase, and advance through the first round. Success continued through round two as they all advanced forward again. In the third round Almirola had all three finishes inside the top eleven; but that wasn't good enough to make it to the season finale'. Bowyer had a disastrous third round with a best finish of 21st and was also eliminated. Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick had a head to head battle for one of the final spots to advance; but Kurt got caught up in a dust up with Denny Hamlin and was eliminated the race before Homestead. One of Harvick's wins came in the third round at Texas; but he failed post race inspection and NASCAR stripped him of his automatic berth into the final race. At Homestead Harvick ran well leading 58 laps. He led as late as 100 laps to go, but the

handing went away on the car and he never saw the lead again. Harvick would finish the race in third in the race and also in points. In the Xfinity series Stewart-Haas fielded another championship contender. Cole Custer posted a series of good finishes. He pointed his way into the Chase. He had 14 top five finishes and an amazing 26 top 10 results. He grabbed his lone win in the third round of the Chase which automatically locked him into the Championship finale' at Homestead. Custer started from the pole and jumped out and led the first 93 laps winning both stages one and two. When the final stage started John Hunter Nemechek took the lead and led for 52 laps. Custer would lead for the next two laps and that would be the final time he would head the field. Tyler Reddicks car

came to life on the long run to the checkers and he led 44 of the final 53 laps. He claimed the checkers and Custer wound up second seven seconds behind. For 2019 Kurt Busch left to go drive for Chip Ganassi, and Daniel Suarez was brought on board to drive the #41 car. Stewart-Haas struggled early in the season. In 2018 Chevrolet introduced it's new car chassis and those driving the Camaro struggled to get the ultimate set-ups on their cars. In 2019 the Fords introduced the Mustang and some Ford teams were behind at the start of the season. Stewart-Haas was one of those. It wasn't a matter of they couldn't run toward the front; it was a matter that they couldn't WIN. As usual

Kevin Harvick was the lead driver. Even he struggled and didn't manage to find victory lane until race number twenty at New Hampshire. This locked him into the Chase; and he added a race win at the Brick Yard 400 as the regular season wrapped up. EVERY race in the Chase he finished inside the Top 10 except for Talladega, which is always a crap shoot. He won at Texas which locked him into the Chase. He was the only driver not driving a car owned by Joe Gibbs Racing to make the final race for the Championship. However he couldn't keep up with Kyle Busch as the race wound down and Busch claimed the

Championship. Harvick finished fourth in the race and third in the Championship. He had 15 Top 5 finishes for the season. As far as the rest of Stewart-Haas drivers; none of them were able to claim a win and as a combined group all of them only had 14 Top 5 finishes. Bowyer posted a second place finish at Texas in the Spring and Almirola had a second place at Texas in the Fall were the only other drivers that did as well as a second place finish. Suarez had flashes of brilliance but over all he just didn't perform near as well as expected. The owners were so disappointed in his performance they released him at the

end of the 2019 season. They brought Cole Custer up from the Xfinity series to drive the #41 car in 2020. In 2019, Custer had a great season in the Xfinity Series posting seven wins and finishing second in the hunt for the Championship. In 2020, Stewart-Haas got out of racing in the Xfinity Series since the Xfinity driver Cole Custer was brought up to drive the #41 car. Custer got his first Top 10 finish at Phoenix and at Indianapolis he posted his first Top 5. The next week at Kentucky, he was running right up front with the leaders. As the three of them battled fiercely for the lead; he went four wide to grab the lead as they all took the white flag together. He squirted away from them and grabbed his first win. This locked him into the Chase and made him a lock to win Rookie of the Year. When the Chase started he had mediocre runs and was eliminate at

the end of round one. For the season he had one win, two Top 5 and seven Top 10 finishes. Clint Bowyer had another disappointing just like 2019. Again he went winless, and was only able to post two Top 5 and seven Top 10 finishes. His best run was a Bristol where he finished second. During the coronavirus pandemic FOX took to showing iRacing events on TV since "real" racing was shut down. iRacing is were drivers log on to their computer and race against each other online. The Cup drivers all bought into this and most all of them raced. Bowyer was an announcer for this series and he brought a colorful, rambunctious style to the shows. Real racing resumed after a couple months. Late in the season Stewart-Haas still had not renewed Bowyers contract to drive the #14 in 2021. The longer it went on the more it looked like Bowyer wouldn't be back.

Eventually it was announced Bowyer would be replaced by Xfinity driver Chase Briscoe. Bowyer had shown such a knack for broadcasting the iRacing events that FOX hired Bowyer to be a TV announcer for 2021. Aric Almirola had an up and down season in 2020. The first part of the season most of his finished was between tenth and 20th. Then in race #12 he got on a hot streak. In the next five races he had a worst finish of fifth; and in the span of nine races a worst finish of tenth. Then just as suddenly as it started; his hot streak ended. After that most of his finishes was between eighth and 8th. He make the Chase via points but was eliminated at the end of round two. For the season he had six Top 5 and 18 Top 10 results. Meanwhile, Kevin Harvick had a great season. He started off on fire. In the first ten races all of finishes were in the Top 10. He also had a win at Darlington after racing

resumed because of the pandemic. He won again at Atlanta and then Pocono. NASCAR had a double header weekend at Michigan and Harvick claimed both of those wins. He also added major wins in the Brick Yard 400 and the Southern 500. In all he won nine times. With all his bonus points he acquired for his race wins and stage wins, it was thought he would easily waltz into the Championship race at Phoenix and compete for the Championship. He won in round one and advanced via points in round two. But at Kansas Joey Logano jumped in and won that event and locked up one of the spots for the Championship. Harvick finished 16th at Texas which put him into a position he had to have a very good run at Martinsville; especially if there was another new winner that would lock up a second spot in the finals. Harvick's

car looked good early; but the handle went away as the race wore on. Meanwhile Chase Elliott; Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex showed they were the best three cars in the race, and if any of those three won, it could be bad for Harvick. Elliott went on to claim the win and he lapped Harvick in the process. Harvick ended up one point short of Keselowski to make the Championship race. For the season he had nine wins; a whopping 20 Top 5 and 27 Top 10 results. He finished fifth in season points. The organization had a rough year. They seemed to be a step behind all the other power teams. After a season that saw Kevin Harvick win nine times, 2021 saw him go winless.

He did post ten Top 5 finishes. Rookie Chase Briscoe was expecting some help to ease his way into the Cup Series, but with the entire organization struggling; it didn’t come; and he only had three Top 10 finishes. Cole Custer had much the same season as Briscoe, only being able to get two Top 10’s. The lone bright spot came when Aric Almirola was able to break out and get the organizations only win. It came at Loudon NH. He had one other Top 5. So, after ten wins and 30 Top 5’s in 2020; the group only posted one win and 12 Top 5’s. All of the drivers would return in 2022. Kevin Harvick returning to the win column was a happy development at Stewart-Haas Racing.

After triumphing nine times in 2020, Harvick never saw Victory Lane in 2021. Winning back-to-back at Michigan and Richmond put some pep into the organization’s step heading to the playoffs. But, Harvick’s playoff run ended as quickly as it started, courtesy of DNFs at Darlington and Kansas. The other victor was Chase Briscoe at Phoenix a month into the season, starting a year vastly better than his rookie season. After finishing in the top 10 just three times in 2021 as the replacement for Clint Bowyer, Briscoe posted six top five finishes, and ten in the top 10. Aric Almirola began the year by saying this would be his final season, largely in part because of the time spent away from his family. By mid-spring, however, it began sounding

as though Stewart-Haas Racing needed the three-time winner to re-up to salvage Smithfield’s lucrative sponsorship. Before the season was over, Almirola said his family had found ways to make their schedules fit better, and he signed an extension. Almirola didn’t repeat his 2021 race win, but his other numbers were largely in line. The issue there is that seven top-10 finishes are not enough for the third car on a four-car team. It was even worse for Cole Custer, whose #41 Ford cracked the top ten just three times. Custer has been demoted to next

season’s Xfinity Series in favor of Ryan Preece, who won’t have to do much to improve the results. Cole Custer had struggled all year; and Tony Stewart was high on moving Preece up to the Cup ranks. A late season surge by Custer made that decision a problem. But in the end the team announced, "Ryan Preece has been a real asset to our race team this year as we’ve developed the NextGen car. The time and effort he’s put into our program, combined with his real-world racing experience, earned him this opportunity". Preece has made a name for himself on the

NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour – NASCAR’s oldest division and the only open-wheel series sanctioned by NASCAR. Preece won the Tour championship in 2013 and worked hard to leverage that title into additional opportunities in NASCAR's three premier series. Stewart-Haas Racing remains the weakest of the Cup Series teams fielding more than two cars. Nothing we saw in 2022 leads us to believe SHR can climb out of that hole anytime soon. One wonders if Stewart is stretched too thin. He is involved with several other ventures; including preparing for the third season of the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX), which he co-founded. He already owned other series and tracks, and

sorting out issues overseas is time that isn’t being spent on NASCAR operations. Kevin Harvick would gone at the end of 2023, and nothing’s stopping Aric Almirola from announcing another retirement around the same time (which he did). SHR needs all hands on deck preparing now for beyond even 2023. 2023 was a disappointing year for SHR in the Cup ranks. It was the first time since SHR was created that they went a year without a win. In fact, all four drivers could only put together a total of 13 top five finishes. Kevin Harvick had a second place finish at Darlington in the Spring, and Aric Almirola added one near seasons end at Martinsville. This would be Harvick’s final year in the Cup series as he announced his retirement early in the season. He had the best results of all the drivers

posting six top five and 14 top ten finishes. Chase Briscoe was next best with four top five and eight top ten finishes. Ryan Preece took over Cole Custer’s ride, but really didn’t produce any better results. Aric Almirola had much the same results as the previous year, and about mid-season he too announced he would retire from racing full time in the Cup series. Noah Gragson will take over Almirola’s seat, while Josh Berry will move from the Xfinity series JRM Chevy, to pilot the #4 Ford. In the Xfinity series, things would be somewhat brighter. Custer made the most of his demotion, as he grabbed three wins in the Xfinity series, and worked his way all the way to the Championship race. At Phoenix he led 96 laps and was too tough for anyone

else to touch; winning the Xfinity title. It would be SHR's first Championship in the Xfinity series. Riley Herbst would break through and get his first Xfinity win at Las Vegas.
At the end of 2023 Stewart-Haas Racing has fielded cars for 1836 Cup starts. They have 69 wins; and 336 Top 5 and 682 Top 10's. They have claimed such major wins as: Brick Yard 400 (2013, 2019, 2020); Southern 500 (2014, 2020); Daytona 500 (2017). Their drivers claimed the Cup Championship in 2011 (Tony Stewart) and 2014 (Kevin Harvick). In the Xfinity Series they only raced seven seasons. They made 270 starts and had 22 wins. Cole Custer finished second in the points in both 2018 and 2019. Riley Herbst has driven an Xfinity series car for SHR the last three seasons.