Luckless Tony Stewart Handed Rare Moment of Happiness Amidst SHR’s Questionable Future

In the past few years, Stewart-Haas Racing has been consistently inconsistent. The Tony Stewart-owned team has retained a majority of its struggles from last season, and to add to the pile of misery, former champion Kevin Harvick has announced his retirement as well. As another topsy-turvy season unwinds for the team, the procedure to turn this rocky boat into a smooth sailing ship has begun.

Replacing Harvick in the iconic #4 Mustang was an impossible task in Tony’s hands. In hopes of recreating a fraction of the success and legacy the 47-year-old has amassed in NASCAR, he struck a deal with new racing sensation Josh Berry. On top of balancing losses, retaining experienced drivers has been the next agenda item for SHR.

Ryan Preece is set to return to #41 in 2024

The driver shuffle is a much-anticipated aspect of silly-season periods. Before today, Ryan Preece‘s seat in the #41 Mustang was not a surety. Having had to endure another challenging season in the Cup, as have his fellow teammates at SHR, Preece hasn’t given up on his team yet, and vice versa. A combination of mechanical issues, wrecks, struggles with pace, and many more factors have contributed to the disastrous season he’s had in 2023.

However, in hopes of a brighter future, he declared that he’d be staying with the team in 2024 on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. He stated,

“I’m gonna be here with the No. 41 SHR for next year so, definitely looking forward to it and we’ve made a lot of gains. Last weekend was pretty frustrating because we drove our way into the top-five and was on the wrong end of one of the last restarts and had nothing to show for where we were the last 10 laps.”

Preece has been sort of a vagabond throughout his NASCAR career. Formerly a part of the JTG Daugherty entourage, the 32-year-old has also been a part-time driving option for many teams in the Xfinity Series. Admitting his joy over being able to fight for a spot in one of the Cup Series’ powerhouses, he added,

“Moving forward, I like the direction and the things we’ve been working on and it makes me optimistic going into Talladega (this weekend) because we have such fast superspeedway cars but also Las Vegas. Our mile and a half stuff has never been my strong suit but the things we’ve worked on, I’m feeling eager and excited to get to Las Vegas and Martinsville and Phoenix are two of my favorite tracks so we have some good ones coming up.”

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With Chase Briscoe also returning to his car next season, Tony Stewart has locked in three drivers for 2024 already. But does that mean the rough patch is over for SHR? Let’s take a closer look.

A mountain of woes for Tony Stewart and co

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In the last two seasons, Stewart-Haas has been nothing remotely similar to a powerhouse in terms of performances. Since the start of 2022, the team has had only three race winners, with the departing Kevin Harvick making up for two of them. Briscoe was the other driver to win at Phoenix in the initial stages of last season.

Another veteran in their ranks, Aric Almirola, has been donning the #10 for many years now. In a similar situation to Harvick, he is also on the verge of announcing his retirement from the sport. Originally, he had retirement on his mind since 2022. However, after some pressure from his sponsors and the team, he returned to racing in 2023. But this time around, the chances of him coming back for another year are pretty low.

One of the major areas of concern has been the performance of next-generation cars. Ever since their introduction, SHR has struggled to find the raw pace that regular race-winning cars seem to be pretty comfy with. Problems with dirty air, poor downforce, and many more factors can be listed that have worsened their case. Almirola and Harvick’s experience was important in this aspect for Tony Stewart.

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Losing two stalwarts of the game including a former champion like Harvick can be harsh on any team. Yet, the time is not to ponder upon what was and to focus on what could be in 2024 for the team.