Stewart-Haas Racing, founded by Tony Stewart and Gene Haas, once dominated the NASCAR circuit, yet the Tony Stewart NASCAR team decline accelerated because of shifting resources, industry changes, and organizational challenges. Insights from co-owner Stewart, driver Kevin Harvick, and crew chief Rodney Childers reveal how mounting internal and external pressures led to the closure of this once-formidable team, marking the end of a key era in stock car racing.
From Peak Performance to Steep Decline
Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) entered NASCAR in 2009, merging the competitive drive of Tony Stewart, a three-time Cup Series champion, with Gene Haas’s technical expertise. The team swiftly captured the 2011 NASCAR Cup Series title with Stewart and continued its streak by clinching the 2014 championship thanks to Kevin Harvick. Over its history, SHR recorded seventy Cup Series victories, including landmark wins at the prestigious Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400, emerging as a benchmark for success.
Despite these achievements, recent years brought escalating problems. As the demands and resource commitments required by modern NASCAR racing increased, SHR was unable to maintain the pace. Speaking to the intensity of those demands, Tony Stewart explained,
“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,”
—Tony Stewart, Co-owner.
A powerful catalyst in the Tony Stewart NASCAR team decline was the withdrawal of factory support: Ford shifted much of its backing to competitors, including Team Penske, effectively leaving SHR without the resources to compete against the likes of Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing. This defection created a ripple effect, impacting everything from car development to staffing. The team ultimately decided to shut down after the 2024 season, officially ending its storied run.
New Racing Era Accelerated SHR’s Weaknesses
As NASCAR evolved, so did the requirements to succeed. During a candid conversation on the Happy Hour podcast, Kevin Harvick and Rodney Childers dissected the team’s downward spiral, particularly as the Cup Series transitioned from the Gen 6 to Gen 7 “Next Gen” cars. Harvick revealed that SHR’s downturn started long before its closing.
“The beginning of the failure and the close down of Stewart-Haas Racing really started a couple of years before that. You could kind of see the bottom was falling out of Stewart-Haas Racing. And maybe you saw it different. But when those resources start to deteriorate, Ford shifted a lot of their support to Penske. And Stewart-Haas just slowly lost piece by piece.”
—Kevin Harvick, Driver.
The Gen 7 era represented a quantum leap in complexity for all teams. The introduction of advanced aerodynamics, altered downforce packages, and brand-new technologies demanded total optimization of every component. Rodney Childers described the immense technical challenge:
“There’s a thousand pieces to put the puzzle together, and you have to do all of them exactly perfect. And obviously, they have really, really good cars right now… I sat beside Billy Scott last weekend and talked for a long time, and his department is different than what mine would be if I was there, right? He’s still coming up with setups for all three cars at 23XI and does a really good job at it. So everybody’s different.”
—Rodney Childers, Crew Chief.
This shift required new team infrastructures, high-level personnel, and a detail-oriented approach. Kevin Harvick emphasized the crucial nature of organizational overhaul, reflecting,
“When it went to a structured, organized, very detailed piece of the puzzle from every piece being a part that matters, I think that’s really when the company needed to be restructured in how it worked. And that’s a Gen 7 thing. Penske was more buttoned up from a detailed standpoint. I still think Gibbs, Hendrick, a lot of those were a little more structured from that standpoint. It changed all of them, though.”
—Kevin Harvick, Driver.
During its best years, SHR’s success was driven by a culture that emphasized hard work and accountability—especially visible in the No. 4 team led by Harvick and Childers. However, as the need for structured processes increased, less formal organizations like SHR lost ground to giants such as Penske and Hendrick Motorsports, both of which had already established comprehensive operational systems. The loss of Ford’s support further hampered Stewart-Haas Racing’s ability to meet the technical requirements of the new era.
Leadership and Team Dynamics in Transition
As the complexity of NASCAR grew, so did the responsibilities of the crew chief position. Rodney Childers highlighted the need for leadership skills well beyond technical acumen:
“The crew chief has to manage the people more than anything. He has to run the ship and keep the ship steered in the right direction and help run the organization.”
—Rodney Childers, Crew Chief.
The new normal for a successful team now demanded not only engineering expertise but also management, team cohesion, and optimal use of resources. The story of Billy Scott at 23XI Racing, as mentioned by Childers, offers a glimpse into just how individualized and specialized team roles have become. These adaptations were easier for organizations with established hierarchies, like Hendrick Motorsports (HMS), which managed to sustain high performance throughout challenging industry transitions by relying on structured leadership and deep organizational bench strength.
The day-to-day of running a team fundamentally shifted—from just assembling and preparing cars to managing people, optimizing logistical flow, and ensuring every detail is executed precisely. SHR had built its reputation by “racing our guts out,” as Harvick put it, but the Next Gen era demanded more than grit. Harvick acknowledged,
“Even today, people say that I like doing things my way. That was the only way we could race there. It wasn’t that I liked doing things my way, but I was going to hold people accountable and do it our way, because that’s the only way we could race. And different places didn’t race that way… But Stewart-Haas Racing was just a bunch of racers, and we just worked our guts out. And with the new car, you can’t do that. You really can’t just outwork somebody. I mean, you have to have all the pieces and parts and the details figured out.”
—Kevin Harvick, Driver.
Competing successfully in NASCAR now requires more than sheer effort—every aspect of team operation, technology, and leadership must mesh perfectly to deliver results under the latest demands.
Schedule Changes and NASCAR’s Viewership Challenges
Besides technical and organizational hurdles, NASCAR teams and fans face a rapidly changing schedule landscape. Saturday night events, once a staple of the sport, have come under intense scrutiny for driving down television ratings and in-person attendance. Kevin Harvick voiced his discontent on his podcast, reflecting on recent race changes:
“We go from Saturday to Sunday at Richmond. TV numbers go up. We go from Sunday to Saturday, crowd goes up. … I’m more concerned … how many people are sitting in the grandstands because that’s what makes it go around.”
—Kevin Harvick, Driver.
He sharply criticized the logic behind shifting major events to Saturday nights:
“Sunday afternoon. Yeah. … There’s no Saturday night racing in the history of NASCAR since the Bristol night races that has scored well in the last five years.”
—Kevin Harvick, Driver.
His frustration echoes throughout the NASCAR community as football season often overlaps with fall Saturday night schedules, making it harder for NASCAR to capture large audiences. Supporting his argument, Harvick cited the Richmond Raceway figures:
“Richmond Raceway’s Saturday night Cup Series race in 2025 brought in just 1.39 million viewers. This was a steep 37% drop from the prior year’s Sunday event at the same track, which drew 2.22 million.”
—Kevin Harvick, Driver.
Such statistics highlight a broader challenge for NASCAR, with growing calls from insiders and fans for the league to reconsider its scheduling approach to safeguard viewership and engagement.
The Broader Impact of SHR’s End and NASCAR’s Future
The conclusion of Stewart-Haas Racing’s journey ripples beyond a single organization. Its demise illustrates how shifting alliances and demands in this intensely competitive field can upend even the most successful teams. Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, and Rodney Childers’ accounts collectively underscore the importance of organizational agility, robust resource allocation, and adaptive leadership in the rapidly transforming world of professional motorsports.
The impact of these changes goes beyond one team: The lessons learned from the Tony Stewart NASCAR team decline resonate for organizations such as Penske, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, and newcomers like 23XI Racing. As NASCAR continues to evolve, only teams that align their strategy, leadership, and resources with the sport’s modern realities will maintain their competitive edge and capture the loyalty of fans, viewers, and sports insiders alike.
