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How Gene Haas Is Pitting NASCAR Drivers Against Each Other for the Greater Good, Starting at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Jerry Bonkowski
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series owner Gene Haas during qualifying for the Subway Fresh Fit 600 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Apr 9, 2010; Avondale, AZ, USA; NASCAR Sprint Cup Series owner Gene Haas during qualifying for the Subway Fresh Fit 600 at Phoenix International Raceway. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Veteran NASCAR owner Gene Haas has partnered with Ford Performance to launch a unique four-race competition among five NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers.

Known as “Driving 4 a Difference presented by the Gene Haas Foundation”, the new in-season tournament will feature a battle between five drivers, all of whom drive the Xfinity Series Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

The drivers — Harrison Burton, Sheldon Creed, Sam Mayer, Kyle Sieg and Ryan Sieg — will compete for a $50,000 purse to be split across the five charities of the drivers’ choosing. Creed and Mayer both drive for Haas‘ Xfinity Series team. The drivers were confirmed again in a post on X by CW Sports.

Burton’s charity is All With My Hands, Creed is racing for Friends of Jaclyn Foundation, Mayer is supporting Starkey Hearing Foundation, Kyle Sieg is driving for Motor Racing Outreach, and Ryan Sieg’s charity is the Isabella Santos Foundation.

The competition begins this Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, followed by next Saturday’s (May 31) race at Nashville Superspeedway, at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City (June 14) and the competition finale will be at Pocono Raceway on June 21, as per a Speedway Digest report.

The driver who earns the most points wins the competition. Points will come through the standard NASCAR scoring system for where a driver finishes in a race, as well as stage points earned.

To add even more drama and intrigue, if any of those five drivers takes their Ford Mustang to victory lane in any of the four races, their points total for that race will be doubled.

The driver who scores the most points over the course of those races will be awarded $20,000 for their chosen charity, the second-place finisher will receive $15,000 for their charity and the three remaining drivers will get $5,000 apiece for their respective charities.

Post Edited By:Abhishek Ramesh

About the author

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski

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Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran sportswriter who has worked full-time for many of the top media outlets in the world, including USA Today (15 years), ESPN.com (4+ years), Yahoo Sports (4 1/2 years), NBCSports.com (8 years) and others. He has covered virtually every major professional and collegiate sport there is, including the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships (including heavy focus on Michael Jordan), the Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX-winning season, the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs World Series championships, two of the Chicago Blackhawks' NHL titles, Tiger Woods' PGA Tour debut, as well as many years of beat coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA for USA Today. But Jerry's most notable achievement has been covering motorsports, most notably NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA drag racing and Formula One. He has had a passion for racing since he started going to watch drag races at the old U.S. 30 Dragstrip (otherwise known as "Where the Great Ones Run!") in Hobart, Indiana. Jerry has covered countless NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA races and championship battles over the years. He's also the author of a book, "Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates", published in 2010 (and he's hoping to soon get started on another book). Away from sports, Jerry was a fully sworn part-time police officer for 20 years, enjoys reading and music (especially "hair bands" from the 1980s and 1990s), as well as playing music on his electric keyboard, driving (fast, of course!), spending time with Cyndee his wife of nearly 40 years, the couple's three adult children and three grandchildren (with more to come!), and his three dogs -- including two German Shepherds and an Olde English Bulldog who thinks he's a German Shepherd.. Jerry still gets the same excitement of seeing his byline today as he did when he started in journalism as a 15-year-old high school student. He is looking forward to writing hundreds, if not thousands, of stories in the future for TheSportsRush.com, as well as interacting with readers.

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