Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford celebrate new alliance

Stewart-Haas Racing’s move to Ford has been known for a nearly a full year, however because of contractual matters the team co-owned by Tony Stewart and Gene Haas could say little about its new partner after the initial announcement.

But with the calendar having changed to 2017, the need to remain tight-lipped is gone. As evident when Stewart, SHR driver Clint Bowyer and Ford executives spoke excitedly about a partnership each strongly feels will be beneficial to both parties during a Wednesday luncheon at the Ford Performance Technical Center in Concord, N.C.

“When we first started meeting with Ford it was very apparent that there were a lot of things they had to offer that we hadn’t seen before and were huge assets for us,” Stewart said. “That’s why we made a serious look at it and ultimately made the decision to switch over.

“They are really focused on winning races and championships.”

With its once-flagship team, Roush Fenway Racing, in a prolonged performance decline and frustrated by not having won the Cup Series manufacturers’ championship since 2003 and drivers’ title since 2004, Ford began courting SHR to switch from Chevrolet in 2015. Considering Stewart was a longtime General Motors proponent — he had raced a Chevrolet or Pontiac in all but one of his 18 seasons in NASCAR’s top division — few thought SHR would actually switch sides.

But after six months of discussions and weighing the pros and cons, SHR signed on. The decision meant it would cease receiving parts and pieces from Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet’s marquee team, necessitating SHR solely build its entire fleet of chassis. This required bringing aboard additional personnel and made for a busy offseason in preparation for next month’s season-opening Daytona 500.

“I feel like it’s an appropriate time for us to get out on our own and cut the cord, so to speak,” Stewart said. “We’re ready for that as an organization and we’ve been preparing for this for a long time, so I feel like we’re ready.”

For Ford, the addition of SHR provides obvious benefits. Along with Team Penske, SHR gives Ford two championship-caliber organizations within its camp and a deep talent roster capable of winning both the driver and manufacturer titles. In addition to Bowyer, who replaced the retiring Stewart, SHR also fields cars for Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, and Danica Patrick.

“We’ve not achieved that goal of a manufacturer’s championship,” said Raj Nair, Ford Motor Co. chief technical officer. “We’ve not achieved that goal of the driver’s championship. I would say both are important.”

When a team changes manufacturers it’s not uncommon to experience an initial lack of on-track success, though all involved are confident any such a drop will be minimal if not outright negated. Stewart acknowledges there’s been a learning curve, but described the transition as “smooth” and expects SHR to contend for its third championship. He won SHR’s first in 2011, with Harvick capturing the championship in 2014.

“We were geared up for this. We were ready for it,” Stewart. “We had plenty of time to prepare for this offseason, so when the end of the season came about, we were ready to go full steam ahead.”