It’s nearly unfathomable to think that Stewart-Haas Racing won’t be part of the NASCAR Cup Series garage from the 2025 season, but with the official statement out we all know it’s just a couple more races before the end of an era. Meanwhile, former SHR driver Kevin Harvick shared his thoughts regarding the outfit’s upcoming exit and the mayhem it will kick off.
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“It’s going to be a war for the people, the good people. It’s going to be a war between all the top teams in a contest to see who can get the best people that are within SHR. There are a lot of good people within SHR and people are hard to come by,” he said on a recent episode of his Happy Hour podcast.
Harvick then continued, “Good engineers, good crew chiefs, good management, all those things exist at SHR and every team in the garage wants them because they want a proven commodity that they don’t have to develop.”
It might not look that way now but SHR was a Cup Series powerhouse, challenging the likes of Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing. Several engineers, crew chiefs, pit crew members, and others were behind that success. One of the biggest names that will be a free agent is Cup Series-winning crew chief Rodney Childers who won with none other than Harvick.
And of course, then there are the charters that will be up for grabs. Teams will be licking their lips at the prospect and the 2014 Cup Series champion revealed three teams that could be interested.
Kevin Harvick speculates the future of Stewart-Haas Racing’s charters
There have been speculations that 23XI Racing, Trackhouse Racing, and Front Row Motorsports were looking for expansion opportunities. What they have with SHR dissolving its Cup Series operations is a golden opportunity which Harvick speculates they will pounce on.
“It seems like three of the charters are going to get sold,” he said. “Sounds like Front Row Motorsports is gonna wind up with one, 23XI, Trackhouse, those are all the rumors… We’re 2:30 in the afternoon speculating on what we think we know.”
They say that someone’s loss can be someone else’s opportunity. Going by that maxim, several teams in the NASCAR Cup Series will be looking to capitalize when SHR closes its door for good.
