DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Tony Stewart put his NASCAR team on blast ahead of this year’s Daytona 500 and in the wake of a 2023 season that came and went without a Cup Series win for the group.
The message: Get to victory lane and hang some banners — or else.
Stewart-Haas Racing is in more than a small slump. The four-car Ford team has been downright dismal for some time.
Once among NASCAR’s best, the organization hasn’t won in the past 84 Cup Series races headed into the season-opening “Great American Race” at Daytona. SHR’s four-driver lineup for 2024 — holdovers Chase Briscoe (No. 14) and Ryan Preece (41) plus newcomers Josh Berry (4) and Noah Gragson (10) — have a total of one victory on NASCAR’s top circuit. Briscoe won in 2022 at Phoenix Raceway.
Stewart, so fiery as a driver he was nicknamed “Smoke,” had enough of the failures. The three-time Cup Series champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer said the standard at SHR — where Stewart and recent retiree Kevin Harvick both won championships — was set too high for the team to now languish far outside title contention.