NASCAR Cup Series owner Tony Stewart shared more details on why he’s shutting down Stewart Haas Racing at the end of the year and pointed to the direction that NASCAR is taking the sport. He also made it very clear it’s a direction that he does not want to be part of.
Tony Stewart via Tony Stewart YouTube
Stewart and co-owner Gene Haas announced the team would dissolve back at the end of May.
In a joint statement the duo explained, “Racing is a labor-intensive, humbling sport. It requires unwavering commitment and vast resources, with a 365-day mindset to be better than everyone else. It’s part of what makes success so rewarding. But the commitment needed to extract maximum performance while providing sustainability is incredibly demanding, and we’ve reached a point in our respective personal and business lives where it’s time to pass the torch.”
A joint statement from Tony Stewart and Gene Haas, the co-owners of Stewart-Haas Racing, regarding the future of our team following the 2024 season. pic.twitter.com/S9hkjnTNXi
— Stewart-Haas Racing (@StewartHaasRcng) May 28, 2024
Now, speaking with Kevin Harvick as part of his Harvick Happy Hour podcast, Stewart provided more details on why he was leaving NASCAR.
He said, “It’s a tough decision, but things in life change. Your priorities change and variables outside of your control change as well. You know, NASCAR — you and I have been around it for a long time — it is not what it used to be. It is drastically different than what it used to be. And that’s okay for some people. And for some people it’s not. And I guess I’m one of those people that I-.”
Tony Stewart via HarvickHappyHour on X
“I have a lot of respect for the France family and for the opportunities I’ve had to be a professional race car driver, and to race at the highest level, and to race with Dale Sr., and Rusty Wallace, and Jeff Gordon, and yourself, and so many great race car drivers,” he added.
Next, he pointed to how NASCAR has changed, “But this is a time where things are drastically changing in the sport. You look at what’s going on with 23XI and Front Row Motorsports right now with their battle with NASCAR and the direction things are going. It’s not a direction that I wanna be a part of. This is the right time. This was never a part of a master plan, but this is-. As this year has gone on this has become very clear that this is the right time for me to get out of the sport. There’s things that I see that I definitely don’t like.
Tony Stewart via Tony Stewart YouTube
“And I’m happy doing the stuff I’m doing now,” he shared. “I’ve always been somebody that’s ran all kinds of different series and I don’t have a Hendrick Motorsports. I don’t have Penske Truck rentals and all the things that a lot of these guys have to back their race teams. We have to do it solely on sponsorship and that is a ton of work. It’s more competitive now getting sponsors than its ever been in our sport.”
He explained, “I mean when you and I started there were more Fortune 500 companies that wanted to be on cars full time that couldn’t because there wasn’t cars to be on. And now you’re fighting for one-race sponsorships, two-race sponsorships. You’re constantly having to change wraps out, change uniforms, crew uniforms. It’s just a different time in the sport.”
While he doesn’t like the direction NASCAR is going, Stewart did state, “The sport is going to be healthy. It’s gonna survive. It always has. It always will. But I am happy at this point in my life to make this change.”
Tony Stewart via Tony Stewart YouTube
He then revealed that his reasonings for shutting down the team have changed over the year, “And like I said it wasn’t that way at the beginning of the year. We had different reasons for why we had to shut down at the end of the season. But as time’s gone on and watching the owners and NASCAR fight and just the chaos that’s going on over there, I’m fine being with this at the end of the year.”
What do you make of Stewart’s explanation?
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