NASCAR Team Boss Admits ‘Misery’ 1 Year After Tony Stewart’s Exit

Tony Stewart’s name is NASCAR royalty, and when he co-founded Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in 2009, he turned a struggling Haas CNC Racing outfit into a juggernaut. With Gene Haas’ deep pockets and Stewart’s star power, SHR hit the ground running, bagging wins in its first season and championships with Stewart himself in 2011 and Kevin Harvick in 2014.

Over 15 years, the team grew into a four-car powerhouse, racking up nearly 70 Cup Series victories with heavyweights like Harvick, Clint Bowyer, and Kurt Busch. But by 2024, the glory days were fading. Sponsorship dried up, performance sagged, and NASCAR’s tricky economics squeezed the operation.

In May 2024, Stewart pulled the plug on his Cup ownership, choosing to chase NHRA drag racing and grassroots ventures while leaving Haas to carry on solo. The split ended one of NASCAR’s most successful partnerships, with Haas keeping one charter to form the Haas Factory Team for 2025. And now, a year later, the transition’s been rough, and Haas Factory Team President Joe Custer isn’t hiding the struggle.

Custer opens up on Haas Factory Team’s struggles

In a recent chat with SiriusXM, Haas Factory Team President Joe Custer laid it bare, “We’re excited about a single car platform but we’ve got to get it right and the results speak for themselves. We’ve had some moments this year as a single car team. Daytona’s been very good to us so we take those moments and we understand what we’re capable of, but how do we get more consistent and it really starts in starting the weekend delivering a race car that has more potential in it on a consistent basis and that comes down to the shop and preparation and data and engineering relationships it can be done.”

The shift from SHR’s four-car empire to a leaner Haas Factory Team hasn’t been easy. After Stewart walked away in 2024, Gene Haas kept one Cup charter, with Custer steering the ship. Daytona delivered bright spots, with top-10 runs in the 2025 Daytona 500 and Coke Zero Sugar 400 showing the team could hang on superspeedways, much like scrappy outfits like Front Row Motorsports or JTG Daugherty.

But the grind of intermediates and short tracks has exposed the limits of a single-car setup. Without the data-sharing and engineering muscle of SHR’s multi-car operation, the team’s been stuck playing catch-up, struggling to find the setup consistency that big teams lean on.

Custer didn’t stop there, urging fans to rethink small teams, “I would encourage the fans and folks to take a close look at smaller teams because they have the potential. They just have to look at it differently and that’s what we’re doing. We’re trying to evolve from a large organization mindset to a nimble smaller organization that takes advantages of its strengths and looks for solutions for the areas it needs to plot us into this sport.”

That’s a nod to teams like JTG Daugherty, which shocked the world with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s 2023 Daytona 500 win, or Front Row Motorsports, which has snagged superspeedway and road course victories. The Haas Factory Team is trying to channel that same hustle, focusing on agility and smart moves like pit crew tweaks or technical alliances.

But the results haven’t come yet, and Custer’s blunt about the pressure, “Gene, he’s a patient man and so we’re not here to do the same thing over next year without addressing these queer issues we have and he made that known to our organization that he won’t tolerate. Not improving and not having a trajectory that can get to winning. So we’ve made some tough decisions and they are tough decision.”

Haas isn’t messing around. After splitting with Stewart over differing visions, he’s bankrolling the team through his CNC business and expects results. Offseason moves like swapping engineers and revamping the pit crew after a sloppy Kansas stop in May 2025 show the team’s scrambling to meet his demands. As one reporter noted, Haas isn’t here to “ride around.” He wants wins, and Custer’s feeling the heat to deliver.

Tony Stewart opens up on NHRA future

While the Haas Factory Team fights to find its groove, Tony Stewart’s already moved on, diving headfirst into NHRA drag racing and family life. In a recent interview, he got candid about his next steps, putting his wife, Leah Pruett, at the center of his plans, “Right now, we’re just trying to figure out what Leah’s going to do. After that, we’ll figure out what we’re going to do. So we just got to wait and see. My wife’s got to figure out what she wants to do before I do anything.”

Pruett, a 12-time NHRA Top Fuel winner, stepped away from her dragster after the 2023 season to focus on raising their son, Dominic, born in November 2024. Stewart’s been racing her Dodge Direct Connection Dragster, racking up wins like the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas and even clinching the 2025 NHRA regular season title.

But he’s clear, “At the point that she decides that she wants her car back, I’m going to have to figure out what I’m going to do. We all know I can spectate for a little bit, but I’m not very good at standing around when there’s race cars around.” That’s pure “Smoke,” the guy who won three NASCAR Cup titles and an IndyCar championship can’t stay away from the driver’s seat for long.

Stewart’s NHRA success, including a $150,000 prize at the US Nationals in Indianapolis, shows he’s still got the fire that made him a NASCAR legend. But his comments reveal a softer side, prioritizing Pruett’s decision about returning to racing. It’s a stark contrast to the misery Custer’s navigating at Haas Factory Team, where the absence of Stewart’s leadership has left a void.