Who Really Wears The Business Suit At Stewart-Haas Racing

8/30/2013

Kevin Abraham

 

On Tuesday of this week, it was announced that Kurt Busch would become the latest driver for Stewart-Haas Racing, causing the team to expand to a four car team.  During the announcement, Gene Haas made it clear that it was his decision to pursue Kurt Busch, and that there were some differences in opinion  inside SHR about adding a fourth car for 2014. Gene Haas made it clear that his company, Haas Automation would sponsor Busch for the full season, with a number that has not been determined as of this writing.  With this move made by Gene Haas, it makes a person wonder if Tony Stewart is in control at SHR, or if Gene Haas has been calling the shots all along.

It is no secret that Stewart-Haas Racing has made some eye raising decisions since Tony Stewart bought half of the team in 2008.  In 2011, during the magical run Tony Stewart had towards the championship, Stewart-Haas fired Darian Grubb, his crew chief.  The team ended up winning the championship, and Grubb found a home at Joe Gibbs racing, as crew chief of the No. 11 car for Denny Hamlin. The next questionable move by the company was to hire Danica Patrick to drive the third car for the team starting in 2012 for a limited schedule then full-time in 2013.  Danica had not really proven herself as a NASCAR driver; however she came to the company with sponsorship, to help fund the other teams.  The latest move made by SHR was to release Ryan Newman after not having the resources to add fourth team for Newman after signing Kevin Harvick to drive for the team in 2014, along with bringing sponsorship with him from Richard Childress Racing.  One month later, Haas makes the announcement that Stewart-Haas Racing will indeed expand and hire Newman’s former teammate, Kurt Busch, leaving Newman without a ride, along with the appearance of the team saying one thing, and then doing something completely different.

Looking back at the history of Haas Racing before Tony Stewart bought into the company, one can see that moves made in the last few years were occurring even before Tony Stewart became the face of the company.  Gene Haas started his team in 2002 with support from Hendrick Motorsports, including getting driver Jack Sprague from Hendrick Motorsports to drive the car.  In 2003, Sprague drove the No. 0 car for eighteen races before being released.  He was replaced with John Andretti for three races, and then Jason Leffler drove for the team for ten races, until the team signed Ward Burton, who finished out the season in the No. 0 car.  Leffler was moved to the Busch Series in 2004 to drive the 00 Haas Automation Chevy. 

 

During the 2004 season, Jason Leffler was having a decent year driving the 00 Haas Automation Chevy in the Busch Series. He won a race for the team, and had seventeen top tens in twenty-seven races, and was third in points after the race in Dover.  Leffler was released from his ride after it was announced he was going to be the driver of the No. 11 FedEx Chevy in 2005.   At that time it was unheard of that a driver so high in the points would lose their job, but that is what happened to Leffler. Haas ran the team through Darlington that year, then closed the team down.  On the Sprint Cup side, Ward Burton drove the No. 0 car for 34 races in but was replaced by Mike Bliss due to lack of performance.

Things were pretty quiet with Haas Racing in 2005 and 2006.  At the end of 2005, Mike Bliss was released and Jeff Green was hired.  Concurrently, Gene Haas re-started the Busch team with Johnny Sauter driving for him, bringing sponsorship along.  At the end of the 2007 season, Haas Racing made a major change and expanded to two teams, driven by Jeff Green and Johnny Sauter.  Near the end of the year, the team hired Jeremy Mayfield to drive one of the cars, and in the process fired Jeff Green after two seasons driving in Sprint Cup.  The team also fired their second driver, Johnny Sauter at the end of the year to make room for Scott Riggs, even though Sauter earned Haas racing its first and only top five in Sprint Cup racing in 2007.  Sauter had shown that with time, he could develop into a decent Sprint cup driver, and was improving, but never was given enough time to show what he could do. 

How did these changes work out for Haas racing? Jeremy Mayfield was fired after seven races in 2008, due to lack of performance.  Haas then brought back former drivers Johnny Sauter and Jason Leffler to drive the No. 70 car along with Ken Schrader, Max Papis and Tony Raines. Scott Riggs ran the 2008 season in the No. 66 car, but was let go at the end of the year. 

In the summer of 2008, Gene Haas made the decision to sell half of his team to Tony Stewart.  Stewart has ties with General Motors, and with Joe Gibbs Racing switching to Toyota at the beginning of the 1998 season, Stewart started to look for a way to get out of his contract with Gibbs, and go back to driving a General Motors car. When Stewart announced he was buying half of Haas Racing, many thought Stewart was committing career suicide, due to the fact Haas Racing in its six year existence has one top five, and fourteen top tens in 284 races.  Stewart came in with fresh ideas, and sponsorship.  Also the team was completely re-built from the ground up with support from Hendrick Motorsports.

As history will show, in the five years since Stewart-Haas racing was formed, the totals for this team show one Championship in 2011.  There are also 19 wins, 78 top fives, and 154 top ten finishes in 360 races.  The results show that having the right parts and pieces makes a huge difference, however the team is still known for making changes and decisions that do not make sense at times. 

A few questions I want to pose to my readers this week. Who is responsible for the massive turnaround at Stewart-Haas Racing?   Was Tony Stewart the difference?  Do you think Gene Haas calls the shots at Stewart-Haas Racing?  Do you think Tony calls the shots, but Gene Haas used Tony’s injury as an opportunity to show he is still a part of the team?  Do you think something else than what I suggest?  Please share your thoughts below.

I can be found on Twitter @Kevdogg329

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