The most pressing query of all – who will drive for the team – was answered last weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when current Stewart-Haas Racing Xfinity Series driver Cole Custer was named the driving force of the No. 41 Cup team starting next season.
The decision got here as no surprise, provided that Custer – the reigning Xfinity Series champion – previously drove for Haas within the Cup Series, and his father, Joe, will manage the HFT operation.
The younger Custer has won all three of NASCAR's national series – Cup, Xfinity and Trucks – and is bound to bring talent behind the wheel to the brand new Cup program.
Uphill climb for a team with one automobile
Perhaps the larger query for HFT is whether or not it may do what other single-car corporations have at all times struggled to do—consistently compete for wins?
Haas never won a Cup race in its first foray into the series with Haas CNC Racing. It wasn’t until NASCAR Hall of Fame member Tony Stewart was added as co-owner of the renamed SHR that the team took a giant step forward in competitiveness and commenced winning races and championships.
There is actually no reason to consider Haas has any intention of returning to a company that’s “also run.”
In fact, it could be counterproductive to his intentions to advertise his own corporations on the automobile. Why invest thousands and thousands in something that won’t attract attention and won’t be the main focus of the sports media?
Joe Custer said his directive is to construct a team that “can compete for a championship” and that he has already secured several pieces to finish that puzzle.
Cole Custer, Stewart-Haas Racing, Haas Automation Ford Mustang
Photo: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsports images
HFT has a 2025 technical alliance with RFK Racing, which has seen remarkable performance gains over the past two seasons. HFT may even proceed its partnership with Ford Performance.
“With all the resources we bring to the table and the success they have and the resources they have, we look forward to seeing RFK and the Haas Factory Team compete for wins and championships side by side,” Custer said.
“With Ford as a partner, we now have no shortage of resources for next 12 months. In terms of individuals, human capital, I’m completely happy to say that we’re on target to making a team that’s able to fighting for victories.
“We're focused on everything human capital, from the pit crew to the engineering resources. So we'll have no excuses next year. We've got the driver, we've got the team, we've got the relationship, we've got the OEM.”
“Gene [Haas] is obligated”
The query stays, and we’ll only know the reply in 2025, when the team returns to the track: can HFT deliver the expected results?
Many single-car races have struggled to compete in recent a long time, however the introduction of a next-generation automobile within the 2022 season could make the trail to success a bit of easier.
Teams now buy virtually their entire automobile from individual suppliers, moderately than spending thousands and thousands on designing parts and components in-house, a bonus of larger and more financially stable organizations.
The division between teams appears to be smaller and more refined, with a greater concentrate on areas resembling individual driving characteristics, service crews and strategy.
“It’s definitely a lot different,” Joe Custer said of starting this enterprise within the Next Gen era. “The resources are different. Gene is committed to it. I believe the long run is more things like software development, simulation, a unique set of tools within the toolbox.
“We can check off the physical items and the capital investments that we’ve made, and the successes we’ve had at Stewart-Haas have come from using a unique set of tools than what NextGen offers.
“Quite frankly, we rely on Brad (Keselowski) and his group at RFK to expand our knowledge base and help us grow. Strategically, we have resources that we can offer to strengthen their program and vice versa.”
Time will tell if this shall be the case.
Cole Custer, nonetheless, isn’t about to waste one other likelihood to compete within the Cup and believes that HFT might help his profession progress.
“At the end of the day, any driver in the Cup Series can probably go out and go fast. But it’s about how consistently you get that speed and how you can work with your team to consistently get the feel you need for the car,” he said.
“I believe the undeniable fact that I can now develop those skills more and I believe, like my dad said, that I even have the resources to exit and compete with one of the best, it's really exciting.
“I think we can work miracles.”
