Bob Pockrass
FOX NASCAR Insider
Tony Stewart went to the Stewart-Haas Racing store a few weeks in the past and noticed as many individuals as he might a month earlier than the workforce shuts down.
“Figuring out that once I left the constructing there, right here’s a few of these folks I’ve recognized for 16 years, and I’ll by no means, ever see them once more, sadly,” Stewart mentioned on “Kevin Harvick’s Glad Hour” podcast. “I do not know that it is even bittersweet. It is extra bitter than candy, I really feel like. It is a robust choice.
“However, you realize, issues in life change. Your priorities change and variables outdoors of your management change as nicely.”
In a pair of interviews with FOX Sports activities final week, one with Harvick on his podcast and one other with FOX Sports activities Digital, Stewart talked about his rookie season in an NHRA prime gas dragster (we’ll write extra on that in a few weeks) in addition to the ultimate weeks of SHR.
Stewart was given half of Haas CNC Racing previous to the 2009 season to type Stewart-Haas Racing. A two-time Cup champion on the time, Stewart left Joe Gibbs Racing for the chance to co-own a workforce. The concept was he might assist deliver skilled racing directors in addition to appeal to folks keen to work for the group.
In its 16 seasons, SHR has received 70 Cup races, together with Cup titles in 2011 with Stewart and 2014 with Kevin Harvick.
Stewart thinks again to profitable the all-star race in 2009 because the pivotal second that has guided him the final 16 years by way of the tip of his Cup profession in 2016 and the seasons that adopted.
“There have been crew guys there that actually had been in tears, and it actually caught me off-guard,” Stewart mentioned concerning the all-star win. “I simply did not count on to see that. And it was those who had been with the Haas group earlier than I might received there and labored on totally different groups that had by no means received a race, and right here we’re profitable our first race as a company.
“And what I noticed for the primary time since I had began Stewart-Haas and develop into part of that, it wasn’t about me anymore. It was about sitting there having fun with watching these guys that had been so overwhelmed and overjoyed with profitable a race that it introduced tears to their eyes. And it was like, ‘That is means greater than something that has to do with me. That is about all of us and what we are able to accomplish collectively.’”
It was with that mindset that Stewart, going through vital sponsorship and manufacturer-support challenges, opted to get out of NASCAR Cup possession. Gene Haas will preserve one of many 4 Cup vehicles and each Xfinity applications and function it as a brand new group, Haas Manufacturing unit Group. The workforce instructed staff on the finish of Might it could stop operations, impacting greater than 300 staff (some staff might return with Haas Manufacturing unit Group).
“The explanation we did the announcement early within the season was to attempt to deal with all of our folks,” Stewart mentioned. “I received so blamed for folks shedding their jobs. Properly, there’s firms left and proper that shut down. Have a look at COVID [in 2020] — how many individuals needed to shut down? No one was screaming about how staff weren’t taken care of and what it did to their households.
“We did what we did to deal with our folks, and we created nice severance packages for them to deal with them and their households. … I might say over 80 p.c of the staff at SHR have discovered properties for subsequent yr.”
Stewart, who owns his NHRA workforce and sprint-car groups, mentioned 16 years as a race workforce in a single collection is a strong run.
“The bashing I received on-line and on social media was very unjust by way of the method,” Stewart mentioned. “It is simple to sit down 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 improper. However no person can appear to sit down there and are available in on Monday morning and inform us how you can do it proper.
“I really feel like our group did an ideal job of taking good care of our folks the most effective that we might, and with the fitting intentions and with the angle of our staff got here first — and that is what the main target has been this yr, is ensuring that we do every little thing to deal with our staff in a season that is a transition yr for everyone.”
Even with the transition, Chase Briscoe received at Darlington to make the playoffs in SHR’s remaining hurrah. It snapped a 73-race winless streak for the group.
“Clearly, for the constructing, the final couple years have been an enormous battle, and simply making an attempt to get a automobile within the winner’s circle once more was robust,” Stewart mentioned. “However to see Chase get that performed at Darlington and win a crown jewel race and get himself within the playoffs, that was an enormous enhance for the constructing.”
Stewart mentioned he didn’t know that the constitution scenario would result in such angst between groups and house owners over the summer season, however watching 23XI Racing and Entrance Row Motorsports sue NASCAR is one thing he’s glad he doesn’t need to be concerned with as a Cup workforce proprietor.
“With their battle with NASCAR and the route that issues are going, it is not a route that I wish to be part of,” Stewart mentioned on the Harvick podcast. “That is the fitting time. This was by no means part of a grasp plan.
“However as this yr has gone on, this has develop into very clear that that is the fitting time for me to get out of the game. There’s issues that I see that I positively don’t love. And I am completely satisfied doing the stuff I am doing now. I’ve at all times been any person that is ran every kind of various collection.”
Stewart indicated the challenges of piecing collectively a number of sponsorships for one automobile and never having different firms to create sufficient business-to-business relationships was simply an excessive amount of for SHR to attempt to function a profitable workforce on the observe. Stewart mentioned he had quite a lot of respect for the NASCAR-owning France household and was appreciative of the alternatives he had racing the greats Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace and Harvick amongst them.
“The game’s going to be wholesome, it may survive,” Stewart mentioned. “It at all times has. It at all times will. However I am completely satisfied at this level in my life to make this alteration. … It wasn’t that means in the beginning of the yr.
“We had totally different causes for why we needed to shut down on the finish of the season, however as time has gone on and watching the house owners and NASCAR combat and simply the chaos that is occurring over there, I am high-quality being performed with this on the finish of the yr.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports activities. He has spent many years overlaying motorsports, together with over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting Information, NASCAR Scene journal and The (Daytona Seashore) Information-Journal. Observe him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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