While 2023 has been a year filled with success for Stewart-Haas Racing and its Xfinity program with Cole Custer behind the wheel, their Cup Series campaign failed to produce the result fans were hoping for the past few years. Adding to their misery, Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola’s departures meant the team’s most experienced driver would become the young Chase Briscoe.

Briscoe will be joined by three upcoming talents who are all yet to win a Cup Series race, which means the pressure will be higher than ever on the 29-year-old to pick up from where Kevin Harvick left off. While his 2023 campaign fell short of what was expected, much of it was due to Stewart-Haas Racing’s recent struggles. However, the morale within the team is higher than ever, with Hendrick Motorsports emerging as a key inspiration for their prospects.

Stewart-Haas Racing aims to shift its focus toward rebuilding around its rising stars

SHR’s Crew Chief Drew Blickensderfer settled the dust once and for all about the team’s 2024 plans on SiriusXM’s NASCAR Radio. Compared to 2023, where only one car managed to make it past the playoffs largely due to Harvick’s effort, for the coming years the team will not be able to rely on a veteran’s skill. This means that Stewart-Haas Racing will have to maximize the potential of the cars beneath the younger talent.

Blickensderfer feels that Stewart Haas Racing’s primary agenda as a company is as clear as day. He said, “We talk about that as a management group at Stewart-Haas, expectations are going to be different than they were, but what we need to see is steady progress. We think all of our race car drivers can win races and drive race cars really well. But we didn’t have race cars last that Kevin Harvick could win in, and that as a company we need to fix.”

The crew chief shared that their priority will not just be getting their 2024 challengers up to speed for their drivers, but ultimately it will help the whole company perform better. Similar to the situation with Hendrick Motorsports a few years ago, Stewart-Haas Racing is ultimately left with only younger talent to assist. But this dilemma is well known within the team, “And you’re not gonna be able to have veterans forever, you know you’re going to have to go through this cycle of young guys, Hendrick Motorsports did it four or five years ago.”

When Hendrick Motorsports was going through a rough patch and decided to place their bets on William Byron and Chase Elliott instead of bringing in bigger guns, most of the community was scratching their heads about what the future would hold.

But the reality was quickly revealed to be in favor of Rick Hendrick’s side. Blickensderfer added, “All of a sudden, William Byron turned into a superstar and Chase Elliott is the guy we thought he is and everything went great, so I think Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece and Josh Berry are great racecar drivers that can win races and I know Noah Gragson is.”

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With the crew chief certain the team needs to get behind their young talents to reclaim glory, it’s only a matter of time before Stewart Haas Racing is back ahead fighting for victories. But it isn’t only their internal struggles that need to be resolved.

Will the Mustang Dark Horse be the key to SHR’s redemption?

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It’s no secret that the Ford-backed teams have been struggling as of late, with Toyota and Chevrolet putting up a tough battle. Despite Ryan Blaney driving home with the Cup Series title in a Mustang, Chevrolet’s overall performance meant they walked away with the championship and 18 wins. Toyota was also slightly ahead of Ford with ten wins, while the latter had won only eight races.

But it wasn’t just Ryan Blaney and Team Penske who had outperformed Stewart-Haas Racing in the Mustang. Joey Logano would kick things off in high gear for Ford with a win at the Amber Health 400, which was followed by Chris Buescher’s back-to-back wins toward the end of the season. The present scenario prompted Blickensderfer to further elaborate: “Well, we needed to be better all year round as a group, and especially at Stewart-Haas, we are not competing at the level of the other Fords or teams our size that we need to be, so we need to improve our race cars, which we have done slightly.”

However, 2024 could spell trouble for Chevrolet much sooner than anyone expects after Ford revealed the Mustang Dark Horse earlier this season. While Chevrolet is stuck with the Camaro ZL1, the future is looking bright for Stewart-Haas Racing and its manufacturer. The vocal crew chief concluded, “Hopefully the Dark Horse is the next step for us, and we’ll see. Probably Daytona; I’m sure we’ll be pretty good. We’ll see when we go onto that west coast wing how much better we are, but hopefully quite a bit.”

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Taking a page from Hendrick Motorsports’ book, Stewart-Haas Racing has its priorities straight for 2024. But will they be able to deliver a car that can catapult Tony Stewart’s young roster to success?