Kevin Harvick on Stewart-Haas Racing shutting down: 'It's unbelievable to me'

The NASCAR world was dealt substantial news Tuesday, as Stewart-Haas Racing announced that it's closing up shop after the 2024 season, expressing that it's "time to pass the torch."

On the latest edition of "Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour," Kevin Harvick, who drove for Stewart-Haas Racing in each of his last 10 years in the Cup Series (2014-23), expressed bewilderment at the news.

"It's unbelievable to me that we went from 4Ever to 4Ward to for sale in six months. I don't even know how you could possibly imagine sitting here today and thinking six months later that Stewart-Haas Racing is going to announce that they're basically folding," Harvick said. "When I went there in 2014, it was a brand-new team. We had a lot of enthusiasm from the ownership group to build this team up into what turned into being a championship-winning team; [we] won a lot of races. But I had a great group of people, and I think the people around that [No.] 4 car [Harvick's car] over the last 10 years are really what held that company together. I think that company was held together by the success of the [No.] 4 car."

So, what went wrong with Stewart-Haas Racing?  

"Once that backbone of all that kind of went away, I think it started poking some holes and just the ‘what happens at the top side of the upper management' and everything that goes with running a race team top to bottom. It's a full-time job. It's a 24/7 job — and it's not a knock on owners — Gene [Haas] and Tony [Stewart] were great to me, but they're kind of hands-off owners and have people in place to do their jobs," Harvick said. "And 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 the things