After more than a year of being winless, the last thing that Stewart-Haas Racing needed was drama inside the team but that’s exactly what’s happening and Ryan Preece is at the heart of it. As a driver, you always expect your teammates to confide the important details to you but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Turns out that the other three SHR sessions held a ‘study session’ to discuss ways to improve their speed and Preece was not invited. Safe to say that he was not happy about it and took to social media to make his opinions clear.
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The driver of the #41 car seemingly got to know about the ‘study group’ thanks to an update by eminent motorsports journalist Toby Christie. Preece commented under the update, “Study group that I wasn’t aware of.” In a recent appearance on SiriusXM Radio, revealed that he felt frustrated that he wasn’t privy to the information. The other three SHR racers all started the Kansas race from P17 or better while the #41 was stuck in P32.
“I had no idea that they, or whoever it was, was starting those. Obviously, I found that out when I saw the tweet so I was a little frustrated at the time because I feel like as a race car driver, not only in the Cup Series at SHR or racing in general, I’m probably the driver… I’m always trying to outwork everybody in all aspects… Needless to say, I found out they’re Tuesdays after the meeting and I will be there tomorrow,” the 33-year-old said.
🗣️ "I had no idea that they, or whoever, was starting those."@RyanPreece_ discusses the driver meetings that are taking place at @StewartHaasRcng and how he will now be a part of them ⬇️
Full interview: https://t.co/qesEcbI9Hq pic.twitter.com/FvTkA9huAn— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) May 7, 2024
This saga has grabbed the attention of several NASCAR insiders, including the spotters on the Door Bumper Clear podcast and they were in unison to suggest that it was not a good look for the Cup Series-winning team.
Veteran spotters speculate the reasons for Ryan Preece’s SHR exclusion
There have already been plenty of issues at SHR and right when things started to seem a little stable, this popped up. Brett Griffin called the whole episode “weird as f**k,” perhaps suggesting that there is a serious case of miscommunication within the team. Freddie Kraft believed that it was best to leave the matter be. “I don’t know, it’s not a good look in my opinion and it’s probably…leave it alone,” he said to which TJ Majors agreed.
Reports suggest that Noah Gragson was the one who arranged for this ‘study group’ and as they were speaking about what his agenda could be, Griffin said that it could be a method to ensure that they weren’t the ones to be axed if the team scraps one of its cars from the next season. “I think they’re digging in over there. When the music’s playing and there’s seats, or maybe there’s not seats, but everybody’s trying to get one,” he said.
It has been rumored for a long time that the team is not able to fund all of their four Cup Series teams owing to the loss of several major sponsors last year. SHR could very well be running three cars next year and if that is the case, drivers need to secure their future by whatever means necessary.
