The 2024 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, AKA “The Observe Too Powerful to Tame,” wound up being the setting for what may very well be the ultimate joyous second within the 16-season tenure of Stewart-Haas Racing. It was on that evening in September, the NASCAR Cup Collection common season finale, the place Chase Briscoe took the checkered flag, clinching his spot within the postseason.
Briscoe’s win snapped a 73-race winless streak for SHR, which had introduced in Could it will stop operations after the season. SHR all of a sudden had a playoff driver in its remaining hurrah, an enormous elevate to a company reeling from workforce co-owner Tony Stewart’s announcement.
“Clearly, for the constructing, the final couple years have been an enormous battle. And simply making an attempt to get a automotive within the winner’s circle once more was powerful,” Stewart mentioned on “Kevin Harvick’s Completely happy Hour” podcast this week. “However to see Chase get that carried out at Darlington and win a crown jewel race and get himself within the playoffs. That was an enormous increase for the constructing.”
At one level not too way back, SHR was certainly one of NASCAR’s most profitable groups. Stewart’s arrival in 2009 legitimized the group. His capturing of the Cup Collection championship in 2011 signaled they might be a participant for years to return. Kevin Harvick joined the workforce in 2014, and he received his first profession title that season. SHR has received 70 races in 16 seasons, with Stewart and Harvick main the best way.
Tony Stewart addresses backlash obtained after information of SHR closure
Nevertheless, going through sponsorship and manufacturer-support challenges, Stewart made the powerful resolution to get out of NASCAR possession, leaving greater than 300 workers with their futures unsure. Stewart in the end felt the criticism he obtained on-line and on social media “was very unjust.”
“The bashing I received on-line and on social media was very unjust by way of the method,” Stewart mentioned, by way of Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports activities. “It’s simple to take a seat in your ass, on a chair, in your sofa in your mother’s home and sit there and inform us how we’re doing it fallacious. However no one can appear to take a seat there and are available in on Monday morning and inform us the right way to do it proper.
“I really feel like our group did an amazing job of taking good care of our folks the very best that we may. And with the precise intentions and with the angle of our workers got here first. And that’s what the main focus has been this 12 months. Ensuring that we do every part to deal with our workers in a season that’s a transition 12 months for everyone.”
