How a Promotion for Chris Buescher’s Race Engineer Is Set to Benefit Cole Custer’s NASCAR Cup Series Return

After two successful seasons with Stewart-Haas Racing in the Xfinity Series, Cole Custer will make his return to the Cup Series in 2025. Alongside him in the setup to race under the banner of the newly formed Haas Factory team will be Aaron Kramer. Kramer was previously the lead race engineer for RFK Racing’s No. 17 team and will serve as Custer’s crew chief.

This connection came to be through the technical alliance that the Haas Factory team has forged with RFK Racing. Kramer had initially been hesitant about joining a new team, considering that he had a promising journey ahead with Chris Buescher, but the alliance ended up pushing him toward making the move.

By this arrangement, the No. 41 Haas Factory team will, for many purposes, serve as the fourth RFK Racing team. Kramer acknowledged the same during a recent interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

He said, “Obviously, we’re in separate buildings with separate people and different tools and different ways of putting cars together.”

“But I have the benefit of knowing how RFK operated for a long time. So, I have that experience. But I have not asked for something and been told no yet.” From car setups to race theories and more, Kramer hasn’t been left lacking for any resource so far. However, there is the mutual understanding that neither team will be doing the other any favors on the race track.

Why the RFK Racing alliance spells good news for the Haas Factory team

It is no secret that Stewart-Haas Racing was in complete ruins by the time it decided to shut its operations down. The management had lost all hope of a revival and asked its employees, including the drivers, to look at other job opportunities. But Custer was kept on the books, for he still had a part to play.

Everything that the team was became a single-car operation under the name of the Haas Factory team, and the 2023 Xfinity Series champion is set to front it. In this mission that he has, he will need all the help he can get, and Kramer walks in loaded with a tonne of firepower from RFK Racing. There is simply no reason for failure to be an option.

Kramer confidently puts it, “I feel like I could be successful in doing it. The resources that SHR had were kept in place minus the headcount and we still have good people. There’s no reason we can’t be successful right out of the gate.” The No. 41 team will be one of the most talked about entries in the field next season.