Getty Tony Stewart looks on during race.
Tony Stewart is a three-time Cup Series champion. He’s a NASCAR Hall of Famer. His words carry weight.
The Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner started off 2024 by sending a message of hope to the organization’s fans on social media but also provided critics with fodder when he made a surprising admission about the team’s recent struggles.
If you think we’re complacent, then you don’t know SHR.
“I think the last couple of seasons, the performance has been way off from what we expected and what we strive for,” Stewart said in a video on X shared by the SHR account. “But, again, this building is full of racers and because of that it gives me hope that we’re going to get the ship righted and get back on course.
“It’s not easy. It’s never easy. But the last two years, dealing with a brand new car that we’ve never seen before and never worked on has definitely caught us off guard. But when you have a building full of racers like this, there’s no better group you’d rather have on your side with them to figure this out and get us going in the right direction.”
Stewart-Haas Racing Has Struggled in Next Gen Car
Stewart is absolutely right. Competing at a high level is not easy. It’s not easy in any sport. But his candid admission of SHR getting caught off guard by the new car is quite surprising. And it raises even more questions, like how and why did this happen?
Since the Next Gen car debuted before the 2022 season, the organization has managed just a pair of wins, and they came from Kevin Harvick in back-to-back races at Michigan and Richmond in 2022. In 2023, the 2014 Cup champion was again far and away the best of the SHR cars, recording 14 top-10 results and six top-5s. However, he went winless.
Meanwhile, SHR, which is a four-car team and is considered one of the sport’s powerhouses, was outperformed by three other Ford teams, including RFK Racing, Front Row Motorsports, and Team Penske. Michael McDowell earned FRM a win at Indianapolis, while Chris Buescher won three times for RFK.
Leading all the blue ovals was Penske, with 2022 champion Joey Logano recording a victory but still playing second fiddle to teammate Ryan Blaney, who won three races and, more importantly, captured his first championship in Phoenix.
Stewart Admitted to Organization Problems Before Next Gen Car
Unfortunately, based on recent history, the struggles at SHR aren’t limited to the new car like Stewart suggested. In fact, he said something similar about the organization in 2021, months before the Next Gen car turned its first laps in the LA Coliseum.
Tony Stewart reflects on SHR’s performance during the regular #NASCAR season: “It’s not been a season that we’re proud of by any means … It’s frustrating because we’re all sitting there scratching our heads trying to figure out what is wrong and what’s going on…”
“It’s not been a season that we’re proud of by any means,” Stewart told reporters in August 2021.
“We definitely have a problem in our organization, and it’s not with people. But there’s something that we’re missing on that’s cost us the entire season up to this point and we can’t find it, but we know there’s something fundamentally wrong. So it’s frustrating because we’re all sitting there scratching our heads trying to figure out what is wrong and what’s going on.”
Based on the most recent results in 2023, it appears SHR leaders remain unclear on the issues plaguing the organization. What’s even more concerning in 2024 is the one driver who could consistently run up front and conceal the team’s flaws in the past, Harvick, is now retired.
In other words, it could be an even more challenging year for SHR and its fans. Or, maybe as Stewart offered, the racers within the organization will figure it out and turn things around.
Time will tell.