Stewart-Haas Racing Shutting Down at Season’s End
What’s Happening The day that many expected but few yearned for has come. Stewart-Haas Racing has announced through a joint-statement from…
Stewart-Haas Racing, as everyone knows it, will not exist after 2024, and fans seem to have a solid idea of where most of its four charters are going. However, the fourth charter is still a mystery, and Brennan Poole floated the interesting rumor of Gene Haas keeping one of the four charters. Eric Estepp posted the clip in the episode below of Out of the Groove.
What’s Happening The day that many expected but few yearned for has come. Stewart-Haas Racing has announced through a joint-statement from…
Poole was very clear that this was merely a rumor he’d heard in the garage, and it was not a confirmed report by any means. However, it is an interesting possibility to consider. He breaks down that, according to what he’s heard, the team could somewhat continue as a two-car Xfinity team with a single Cup Series car.
I’m hearing that they’re still going to have the two Xfinity cars, so, I’m assuming, the 98 and the 00 will stay the same, but you know, I’ve heard all kinds of rumors too. Maybe Joe Custer is getting one of the one of the four charters, and they’re going to move and be, I think, in the Xfinity building. I think it’s a separate shop, I’m not totally sure, and run a cup car. But, I mean, you hear those rumors. You don’t know if it’s true or not, but, I could see that happening. And, maybe Haas is keeping one of them; I don’t know how the charters are broken down between him and Tony.
Brennnan Poole
Joe Custer is the father of defending NASCAR Xfinity Series Champion Cole Custer. Poole later added that Cole Custer could drive that Cup Series entry, should it actually happen.
If this happens, Riley Herbst may stay in the Xfinity Series. If Ford stays, it might allow them to bring up another prospect or recruit another. However, a lot needs to happen first.
Why would this even be a thing? Poole points to the current Cup Series charter market and how few teams realistically could buy a charter.
Who’s going to buy another one out of the teams that are out, like who? Roush? RFK, maybe? Even Brad [Keselowski], though at Wilkesboro was like, ‘Yeah, we’re not really ready to do that. We’re just not ready. We don’t have the people.’ it’s like okay yeah I could see that, like, who? Who?
Brennan Poole
The teams that theoretically could buy another charter are JTG-Daugherty Racing, Kaulig Racing, Legacy Motor Club, RFK Racing, Rick Ware Racing, Richard Childress Racing, and The Wood Brothers. Who among them could buy a charter?
As Poole said, Keselowski has admitted that RFK Racing may not have the resources to get a charter. He said this on social media in the wake of SHR’s shutdown.
JTG-Daugherty Racing could be going through an ownership change. The Wood Brothers haven’t fielded a second car since the 1960s. Rick Ware Racing is improving, but are they good enough with enough resources to field a third car? With 23XI Racing reportedly interested in buying a third charter, Toyota doesn’t have as much of a reason for Legacy Motor Club to buy a third charter.
Richard Childress Racing is rumored to be interested in Noah Gragson, as was reported by Jordan Bianchi and later mentioned by spotter Brett Griffin on “Door, Bumper, Clear.” Do they have enough to buy a third charter to bring him in?
What’s Happening? In the wake of Stewart-Haas Racing closing down, rumors immediately began to surface about Noah Gragson’s, future. One…
Kaulig Racing is struggling in 2024, but could they buy a third charter? Chris Rice teased in a recent appearance on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio that the team has something up its sleeve, but it isn’t ready to announce the plans yet.
What’s Happening? Kaulig Racing Team President Chris Rice joined Sirius XM NASCAR Radio on Thursday, and he addressed recent rumors…
Ultimately, there is no slam-dunk scenario. No team is guaranteed to be in a place to buy a charter, so, if Haas and Custer cannot sell the charter, why not keep it and keep the team going for maybe a year or so?
In that sense, it does make sense that Gene Haas could keep one charter. However, it’s probably equally as likely that he sells that fourth charter. Ultimately, time will tell.
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Another race weekend in the books. While Ryan Blaney battled back from several pit road setbacks to win his second straight race at Phoenix, other drivers were much to be desired. It was a big win for Penske but for several others, they leave the first “real” race of the season scratching their head with a lot that they need to figure out. Here are the biggest losers of NASCAR’s Spring 2026 Phoenix race weekend.
I’m afraid that this is starting to be habitual. Another race weekend at RCR for Kyle Busch, another terrible result. Well, the finish wasn’t exactly awful. While 17th is hardly up to Kyle’s standards, it’s about as good as it gets anymore for the two-time champion who hasn’t won a race in nearly a hundred starts.
To start things off, there was a reason to be cautiously optimistic about the future of that RCR No. 8 Chevy. New crew chief. Personnel changes. A new Chevy body. He even scored the pole for the 68th running of the Daytona 500 last month. But, since then, it has been a sharp slope downward. He was mostly a non-factor in the first three races. And, today, it seemed like the No. 8 Chevy was out to lunch. They unloaded slow. They qualified in the back of the pack. And, before Stage 1 even ended, Kyle was running 34th with no apparent issues and went a lap down to leader Ryan Blaney. To add insult to injury, Kyle Bush had a tire go down on him three times today. More than any other driver. It appears to be back to the drawing board for team No. 8.
You could say that the Hendrick No. 48 team had a rough weekend in general. But I think it would be more accurate to say that the entire start to 2026 has been catastrophic. Heading into today’s race, even with Bowman starting the first three races of the season, the No. 48 team was 36th in points, last among all full-time drivers. Even Cody Ware was ahead of him. If that’s not bad, I don’t know what is.
To rub salt in the wound, their driver missed today at Phoenix due to showing symptoms of vertigo. So, Anthony Alfredo was into sub and…it went about as well as you’d expect. He went a lap down early and never recovered. He got caught up in the incident involving Joey Logano and DNF’d. Officially, they scored a 33rd finishing position. This is the worst start Bowman could ever imagine, considering that he’s in a contract year.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I’ve lost my marbles. “Come on, dude! Penske just swept the weekend! How can they be losers?” Hear me out. Let’s start first with the two other Penske drivers, shall we? Joey Logano caused not one, but two multi-car pileups, one involving his Penske teammate, Austin Cindric. Cars were utterly destroyed. Before that, both Cindric and Logano were running solidly in the top 10.
So, it’s not for a lack of speed that they make our Biggest Losers list. The reason they’re listed here is that a lot of their problems today, if not all of them, were self-inflicted. Logano was driving sloppily and that took out Cindric. And even race winner Ryan Blaney almost lost this race on pit road numerous times. Rookie mistakes by the pit crew constantly had him charging from behind. Pit road penalties. He was like a yo-yo going back and forth throughout the field. What saved him in the end was that, on that last restart, Blaney took two tires and Christopher Bell took 4. If that had not happened, it is extremely possible that Blaney ultimately would have lost the race and it would have been because of their numerous mistakes in the pits.
They got lucky this week. They probably won’t get that lucky again. They need to clean up those nagging, senseless mistakes.
Ole, Danny boy. If Alex Bowman’s seat is the hottest in the series, Daniel Suarez has to be the second hottest in the garage. That No. 7 car has been a revolving door of drivers for the last several years and it looks like Suarez is shaping up to be Spire’s latest victim. It’s the same old story with the team: they show impressive speed in qualifying and even early on in the race. But rarely do they ever put a full race together. That criticism isn’t just for Suarez, it applies to the team across the board.
But Carson Hocevar is the team’s golden child. He’s not going anywhere. And the team seems pretty high on Michael McDowell at the moment. That leaves Suarez looking like the odd man out, a seat-warmer, if you will. He needs to perform. And, he’s done well to start, admittedly. But he qualified 5th for today’s race. He even earned a few stage points in the opening stage. Then, he faltered and left the race with an unceremonious whimper. Ultimately, after he was no longer a factor, he was caught up in a mid-race wreck. He finished 30th. That’s a tough pill to swallow for the Mexican-born driver. If he wants to keep his ride next year, he needs to show stark improvement in the coming weeks. I have a strong feeling that that ride is about to be a highly sought-after commodity once silly season rolls around.
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The first checkered flag of the 2026 rendition of the NASCAR West Coast Swing (as abbreviated as it is) has officially flown. It was an exciting race, full of close, tight-cornered racing, a plethora of tire issues littered throughout, and a couple of heartbreaking, hard hits. Surviving it all was Ryan Blaney, who captured the flag in the Straight Talk 500 at Phoenix Raceway. He survived pit road mishaps and passed a total of 49 cars to win the race today. It marks his 18th career victory, sweeping the weekend for Team Penske. So, for Blaney and Team Penske, the race was the highest of highs. Not everyone escaped unscathed, though. Here are the key takeaways from NASCAR’s spring date at Phoenix.
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Following a relatively clean first stage, Stage number 2 and beyond was littered with cautions. Most of these cautions were a result of tires going down after only about 20 laps or so of use. But the caution on Lao 216 was purely driver error. Joey Logano, who was running 7th at the time, made a move down on the apron approaching the finish line. Chaos ensued. Here’s what happened.
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