Stewart-Haas: A Winning Tradition
by Tom Jensen October 14, 2024
Now in its final season, Stewart-Haas Racing will leave behind a legacy of winning.
Most of the time, the NASCAR history we write about in the Curators’ Corner tends to harken decades back, often to the early days of the sport. But for this blog post, we’re going to discuss some history that is still being written: the winning tradition of Stewart-Haas Racing, the team co-owned by California businessman Gene Haas and Tony Stewart, the latter a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2020.
This season, Stewart-Haas is campaigning four full-time cars in the NASCAR Cup Series and two more full-time cars in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
In late May, owners Haas and Stewart delivered the shocking news that the team would be closing its doors at the end of the 2024 NASCAR season. Next year, Haas will be the sole owner of the downsized and rebranded Haas Factory Team, with a single Cup car for Cole Custer and two Xfinity cars for Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer.
Since its founding in 2009, Stewart-Haas Racing has won 70 Cup races and two series championships, the first in 2011 with Stewart and the second in 2014 with Kevin Harvick. In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, the team has 25 race victories and the 2023 championship with driver Cole Custer. With just a handful of races left in the 2024 NASCAR season, it’s possible Stewart-Haas drivers could post additional victories and even championships in one or both series.
Regardless of how this season ends, Stewart-Haas made a significant contribution to NASCAR’s history over the last 15 years, so we salute their accomplishments and the eight drivers who’ve won Cup races with the team.
During 2020, when fans were not allowed at races due to Covid-19, Cole Custer was victorious at Kentucky Speedway in his Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. Photo courtesy of Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR
Cole Custer, 1
In July 2020, Custer won the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, which turned out to be the 10th and final time the Cup Series raced at the 1.5-mile track. Custer also made a huge impact in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, finishing second in points in 2018 and ’19 before taking the title in 2023. As of October 1, 2024, Custer has won 15 Xfinity races in his career and is in contention to defend his title.
Chase Briscoe’s only chance to qualify for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs was to win the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway and he did just that, pulling off an upset victory. Photo courtesy of Meg Oliphant/Getty Images
Chase Briscoe, 2
Indiana native Chase Briscoe’s two race victories were the two most recent wins for Stewart-Haas. In March 2022, Briscoe won his first Cup Series race, claiming victory in the Ruoff Mortgage 500k at Phoenix Raceway. Briscoe said he was crying in the car as he headed towards the checkered in flag on the last lap. Earlier this year, Briscoe came up even bigger winning the last race of the 2024 regular season and one of NASCAR’s marquee events, the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. The walk-off victory qualified Briscoe for the Cup Series playoffs a second time.
A victory at Martinsville Speedway in 2018 earned Clint Bowyer a Ridgeway grandfather clock, one of the most coveted trophies in NASCAR. Photo courtesy of Sarah Crabill/Getty Image
Clint Bowyer, 2
He’s now a broadcaster on FOX, but from 2017 to 2020, the popular Kansas native drove for Stewart-Haas, winning twice. Bowyer’s two victories both came in 2018, and they reflected the diversity of his skillset behind the wheel. In March 2018 Bowyer won the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway, the smallest track on the circuit, and in June he captured the Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, a fast, high-banked 2-mile oval.
It was elation for Aric Almirola and his Stewart-Haas Racing teammates after his Talladega victory in 2018. Photo courtesy of Chris Graythen/Getty Images
Aric Almirola, 2
Always fast on restrictor-plate tracks, Aric Almirola scored his first of two victories with Stewart-Haas in the 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in October 2018. During the 2018 season, Almirola finished a career-best fifth in the Cup Series points standings. Nearly three years later, Almirola won at the 1.058-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where he took the checkered flag in the Foxwood Resort Casino 3-1.
It was pandemonium in Victory Lane for Ryan Newman and his Stewart-Haas Racing crew after the Indiana native won the 2013 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Photo courtesy of Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Big Machine Label Group
Ryan Newman, 4
Like boss Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman was both an Indiana native and one of the original Stewart-Haas drivers. From 2010-13, Newman won one race a year for the team. Far and away Newman’s biggest victory with the team came in the 2013 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. For an Indiana racer there is no bigger track to win on than Indianapolis. And while Stewart won the Brickyard race twice, he won both races before Stewart-Haas was formed. Newman’s Brickyard triumph was a huge moment for both the driver and the team.
Kurt Busch’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammates rushed out onto the infield to greet their driver after he won the 2017 Daytona 500. Photo courtesy of Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images
Kurt Busch, 6
Handpicked by co-owner Gene Haas to join Stewart-Haas, 2004 Cup Series champion Kurt Busch won at least one race all five years he drove for the team. Busch’s winning streak began in 2014, when he was victorious in the spring race at Martinsville Speedway. In 2017, Busch opened the season with a victory in the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s most prestigious race on the schedule. Busch remains the only driver to win the Daytona 500 in a Stewart-Haas car, and his victory was also a career highlight for crew chief Tony Gibson, a Daytona native.
The fireworks went off and the champagne flowed freely at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2011, Tony Stewart won his third NASCAR Cup Series championship and the first for Stewart-Haas Racing. Photo courtesy of Chris Graythen/Getty Images
Tony Stewart, 16
The co-founder and co-owner of Stewart-Haas, Tony Stewart delivered some of the team’s finest moments and biggest victories. The memorable moments began in the team’s inaugural season of 2009, when Stewart delivered their first victory by winning the NASCAR All-Star Race and with it the $1 million purse. Two years later in 2011, Stewart had a record championship run that was one of the most epic battles in NASCAR’s history. After going winless in NASCAR’s 26-race regular season, Stewart won five of the 10 playoff races, including the season finale at Homestead Motor Speedway to tie Carl Edwards (Class of 2025) in points and claim the championship on a tiebreaker. It was Stewart’s third championship as a driver, but the first for the team. In the process Stewart became the first owner driver to win a title since the late Alan Kulwicki (Class of 2019) in 1992.
Champions and close friends Kevin Harvick (left) and Tony Stewart hugged it out after Harvick won the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series championship in a car co-owned by Stewart. Photo courtesy of Todd Warshaw/NASCAR via Getty Images
Kevin Harvick, 37
Here’s a mind-blowing stat: Of the 12 drivers who’ve raced at least one full season for Stewart-Haas, Kevin Harvick has won more races than all of them combined. In his first season with Stewart-Haas in 2014, Harvick won five races, including the final two to capture the Cup Series championship. In his first eight years with Stewart-Haas, Harvick finished in top three in points six times. In 2018, he won eight races, including an early season streak of three in a row. Harvick bettered his own total in 2020, when he won nine races, none more important than The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway, NASCAR’s first Cup race after the Covid shutdown. That season, Harvick also claimed his second consecutive and third overall Brickyard 400 victory.
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