The beginning of a new NASCAR season signals a fresh start for every team on the grid.
For Stewart-Haas Racing, that fresh start must feel like a welcome relief.
The organization staggered through a disastrous 2023, a season that ended with the retirements of superstar Kevin Harvick and veteran Aric Almirola. Taking over the No. 4 car from Harvick is Josh Berry, who previously competed with JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series. Noah Gragson gets the No. 10 from Almirola, joining SHR after a nightmarish rookie season with Legacy Motor Club.
The rest of the team’s lineup remains unchanged with Chase Briscoe in the No. 14 and Ryan Preece in the No. 41. It is a much younger and less experienced quartet racing for Tony Stewart and Gene Haas this year, and a lot of questions remain about this team’s future.
SHR went through a rebranding of sorts during the offseason, casting its drivers as hardscrabble grassroots racers who compete with grit and determination. Stewart himself has also been vocal in recent weeks about the team’s poor performance in 2023, insisting that similar results this year will be unacceptable.
Yet for all of Stewart’s comments about whipping his team into shape, it is not clear how SHR can reverse the downward spiral that the organization has been on for the last three years. In addition to losing Harvick and Almirola, the team also lost major sponsors like Busch Beer and Smithfield. The departure of those longtime backers, combined with the absence of a true veteran driver, is a serious blow to a team that has already been struggling.
Among the drivers racing for SHR in 2024, Briscoe is the only one with a victory. His lone Cup Series win came nearly two years ago at Phoenix Raceway, a win that served as a springboard for his entry into the 2022 playoffs. Briscoe performed admirably in the postseason, clawing his way to the third round and nearly stealing a win at Martinsville Speedway that would have put him into the championship race.
The 2023 season was a much different story. After the Coca-Cola 600, the No. 14 team got slapped with an L3 level 120-point penalty for counterfeiting a single-supplier part. Until that time, Briscoe had been on the cusp of a playoff spot, but the massive penalty effectively placed him in win or bust territory during the second half of the regular season. The No. 14 team never came close to winning before or during the playoffs, even after Briscoe was reunited…
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