The closure of Stewart-Haas Racing has hit many in the racing community hard, including the wife of former SHR driver Kevin Harvick. Harvick finished his career with SHR and won a NASCAR Cup Championship with the organization.
His wife, DeLana Harvick, reached out on Twitter to express her feelings over the sudden news.
“I’ve heard the rumblings just like everybody else, but to see it in writing is still hard to believe…” Harvick wrote. “Pops and I were so fortunate to be surrounded by a great group of people for the last chapter in his career. SHR was like a second family, especially the 4 team, and my heart hurts for all the wonderful men and women wondering what’s next. Sending lots of positive energy to them all as this chapter closes.”
Kevin Harvick drove the No. 4 race car for Stewart-Haas Racing, quickly becoming a mainstay in the sport.
He claimed the Cup Championship in 2014, his first season with Stewart-Haas Racing. That showed the kind of firepower the organization would have going forward.
Stewart-Haas Racing as it currently exists came about in 2009. Originally Haas CNC Racing was formed in 2002, when Gene Haas elected to form his own team. Tony Stewart was later added to the mix in 2009 as a driver in a deal that gave him a 50% stake in the company.
Chevrolet provided the team’s engines and chassis until 2016, when the organization began using Ford engines and building chassis in-house. It was an operation firing on all cylinders for many years.
For his part, Harvick called the news of the SHR closure ‘unbelievable.’
“It’s unbelievable to me, really, that we went from forever, to forward, to for sale in six months,” Harvick said. “And it’s just, I don’t even know how you could possibly imagine sitting here today and thinking six months later that Stewart-Haas is going to announce that they’re basically folding.
“It’s a full-time job. It’s a 24/7 job. It’s not a knock on the owners. Gene and Tony were great to me. But they’re kind of hands-off owners and had people in place to do their jobs. I think in today’s day and age, you have to have people that are involved with the authority to do what they need to do with the people and things inside the company to make it run properly. It’s tough to see.
“I mean there’s a lot of people that put a lot of time and effort into that organization. And the organization did a lot for me, personally.”
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