After a weekend of rainy on again, off again weather that affected both the Indy 600 and the Coca Cola 600 as well as Kyle Larson attempting the entire 1100 miles, the weekend of racing was shattered by the announcement that Stewart-Haas racing was shutting its doors at the end of the 2024 season.
WHOA you say. I did too.
Sure, SHR is struggling but they’ll make it back, right?
Um, the answer quite clearly is NO.
In hindsight, I guess the writing was on the wall, even if not always visible.
The team has lost its top tier drivers over the years with the departure of Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick as well as Aric Almirola. And while you can argue that they are in the midst of a rebuild with young talent, they are led by Chase Briscoe currently in 16th place, Josh Berry in 19th and Noah Gragson in 20th. They have led a combined 60 laps. As talented as this trio may be, they have just 3 top five and 12 top ten finishes between them. So, no one is quaking in their boots right now when SHR shows up to the track.
You can also look to where the focus of the owners is. For Tony Stewart, it is building a family, his NHRA career and being a track owner. And that last one is key. Stewart holds a grudge and not having a sanctioned NASCAR event on his track chaffs his hide.
Gene Haas has his mind elsewhere getting his F1 team up and running and being successful there. While he has had some health issues, he certainly has the money to fund his team but why spend your money when sponsors have been withdrawing? And speaking of sponsors, you add in the fact that the contract with Ford is expiring, now you have to convince a manufacturer to back you with this talent and while you are sponsor shopping.
That’s a lot of financial dominoes on the board.
And if you look at the whole charter conversation that has been going on, NASCAR isn’t making the financial side of the sport any easier, just ask Michael Jordan.
There are a lot of families who rely on SHR to put dinner on the table so this will have a very real impact on the face of the sport as well as down in the trenches.
A lot more is to come on this. We’ll just have to wait and see what leaks out over the coming months.
Oh and yeah, Christopher Bell won the rain shortened 600, Josef Newgarden won back-to-back 500s in a thrilling finish and Kyle Larson never got to finish attempting his 1100 thanks to Mother Nature.
Now, Larson is one race short of a full season so can he compete for a title? He would need a waiver to do that, so we’ll have to see what NASCAR says. If not, that is a weird decision to let him finish 18th in the 500 only to lose out on the very real chance of winning a title in NASCAR.
If the waiver situation has already been decided ahead of all this, then you can thank his team owner and NA$CAR collusion.
(Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images/NASCAR Media)
