SHR Star Finally Breaks Silence on Tony Stewart’s Dramatic NASCAR Exit Jeopardizing Teams Mid Season

Jun 2, 2024 | 8:03 AM EDT

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Thanks to Tony Stewart, the tides are turning in NASCAR, and not in a good way. While Stewart Haas Racing has been an influential brand in NASCAR since its establishment in 2009, the team is set to bid adieu at the end of the 2024 season. Yes, fans are sad. But various stakeholders have to bear the brunt of the closure. This includes SHR drivers.

Chase Briscoe has been the longest-tenured racer at SHR after Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola. With numerous Top-10s and a P5 finish at Darlington, where he held William Byron to secure his position, Briscoe’s results have become increasingly important this season. But with all the SHR charter sales, what effect will this reshuffle have on Briscoe? Will he find his suitor as he grapples with an uncertain future? Hear it from the man himself.

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“We had a tough week,” said Briscoe in a recent interview with Frontstretch. Although many were expecting it, some members of the #14 team who have been with SHR for quite some time were caught off guard by this announcement. “We kind of knew it was coming right for the last couple months. But it’s another thing to finally hear it and you know just see the impact on you know people’s lives… people that are close to me you know. There’s a lot of guys on the 14 car that have been there for 15 plus years, so you know just the reality kind of setting in for them.”

From Briscoe’s remarks, the larger implications for team #14 are quite visible. Their uncertain future has had many crucial team members begin to look elsewhere for employment. And as upsetting as it sounds, this inevitably means a dearth of team members to assist drivers during races. “We were talking this day, like, it might really be hard for us to get cars to the racetrack. People are leaving, and it’s not like you’re going to get somebody to start coming to work there even on a short-term basis. I mean, once people leave, there’s nobody coming back,” Chase Briscoe revealed.

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However, not just Briscoe, but other drivers of SHR share the same opinion. Josh Berry, who had his first top-10 victory this year at the Coca-Cola 600, had a similar sentiment. Berry opined, “Yeah, I mean, Tuesday was a tough day for all of us, right? I mean, from the drivers to every man and woman that works in the shop, right?”

On the other hand, the third star of the team, Noah Gragson, sounded optimistic, as he said, “And, yeah, we’re just gonna, you know, we’re gonna race hard the rest of the season and see what happens.” All this drama in SHR brings up one question. What brought SHR into this position in the first place?

Grand reshuffling and factors leading to the demise of SHR

SHR, as a team, was launched in 2009, and soon after, it became one of the leading teams in the championship, taking its first title in 2011 under Tony Stewart. The team then repeated this achievement with Kevin Harvick in 2014 at Phoenix Raceway and in later years with Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer, and Danica Patrick.

However, where Tony Stewart & Co. presently finds itself is quite different from its glorious past. As the charters are almost set to find their new teams, the drivers hang in balance until they find the right suitor.

While the season is still in its regular phase, the signing of Ty Dillon for Richard Childress is evidently not a piece of great news for Noah Gragson, who was earlier contending for a spot there. But, with Michael McDowell ready to leave FRM to join Spire Motorsports next season, the #4 team driver is being rooted as the likely prospect, thanks to his relationship with Bass Pro Shop. Again, this leaves the other two SHR drivers with zero options for now!

Moreover, there is a cascading effect of the charter sale on the drivers of other racing clubs, which cannot be ruled out either. They can be directly affected by the sale and purchase of the drivers set free by SHR.

Despite these pressing concerns, the entire downfall of SHR was much anticipated considering the background developments. Ford is speculated to enter Formula 1 in 2026 and is unlikely to increase NASCAR funding. Thus, SHR anyway had worries piling up about its financial constraints. If it wished to expand, the support from the manufacturer would be limited in the future.

Evidently, Chevrolet, Toyota, or any other manufacturer wasn’t ready to expand by adding another four-car team to its charts. With potential new entrants, such as Honda not being ready until 2027, SHR was left with little to no support. So it looks like departure was on the cards, after all.

Additionally, summing up these problems is the recent absence of Tony Stewart and Gene Haas from the racing business. It looks like the NASCAR team has been out of their sight, as the NHRA drag racing department has been occupying Tony Stewart while Gene Haas was focused on the Haas F1 team. As a result, this caused further doubts about SHR’s ability to provide stability for stakeholders and supporters.

Even the Next-Gen car changeover was not good for SHR. The cars, which demand a higher degree of assembly-level skills and innovation, were notably missing from the team. But, as discussed before, the background developments had reached a point of no return. Thus, Tony Stewart & Co. has no other choice but to liquidate itself. And now fans wait with bated breath to see where their favorite drivers are headed, at the end of the season.