Stewart-Haas Racing ceasing Cup operations after 2024, selling four charters

Stewart-Haas Racing, which has won two Cup titles and captured 69 wins since its formation in 2009, will close after the 2024 season, shuttering a four-car Cup operation.

Co-owners Gene Haas and Tony Stewart have appeared focused on other aspects of their businesses in recent years. Haas has a Formula 1 team that has struggled and the three-time Cup champion Stewart started an NHRA drag-racing team a couple of years ago that his wife drove for last year and Stewart is driving for this year.

SHR has struggled in recent years and its hefty support from Ford is set to end after this season. It also lost two major sponsors in Smithfield and Anheuser-Busch prior to this year, so without that Ford support continuing it would have been difficult to sustain a four-car operation.

"We have made the difficult decision to close Stewart-Haas Racing at the conclusion of the 2024 season," Stewart and Haas said in a joint statement. "It is a decision that did not come easily, nor was it made quickly.

"Racing is a labor-intensive, humbling sport. It requires unwavering commitment and vast resources, with a 365-day mindset to be better than everyone else. It's part of what makes success so rewarding. But the commitment needed to extract maximum performance while providing sustainability is incredibly demanding, and we've reached a point in our respective personal and business lives where it's time to pass the torch."

The organization has four charters that it can sell, and sources indicated at least three of them will go to existing Cup organizations — one to Front Row Motorsports, one to 23XI Racing and one to Trackhouse Racing. All three of those organizations indicated they had no comment on any charter acquisitions today. Where the