Kevin Harvick reacts to 'surreal' closing of Stewart-Haas after Phoenix championship race

Stewart-Haas Racing is officially no more after 16 years in NASCAR. The race team, responsible for two Cup Series championships during its tenure, had its final run in this past Sunday’s season finale at Phoenix.

Co-owners Tony Stewart and Gene Haas were both in attendance for Stewart-Haas’s swan song, as the haulers left the racetrack for the last time. Kevin Harvick, who piloted the Stewart-Haas No. 4 car for the final 10 seasons of his career and won his first Cup Series championship in 2014, called it “surreal” to think that Stewart-Haas, as of Monday, was gone.

Kevin Harvick: Stewart-Haas was a ‘special place’

“It’s somewhat surreal with everything that has happened this year,” Harvick said on Tuesday’s “Happy Hour” podcast. “And when you look at just Stewart-Haas Racing gone, like today it’s gone. Those guys aren’t even allowed back in the shop. They had to drop their computers off, they took their company vehicles and they’ll never go back in the shop. Their offices have been cleaned out for a couple weeks and now they are in a weird circumstance like this, all those guys are starting at their new jobs tomorrow and Wednesday. It’s been hard to kind of take all that in and really realize that Stewart-Haas Racing is gone.

“I’m glad Tony was there to be able to talk to everybody and be a part of the last event. And also for Riley [Herbst] to go back to Victory Lane. What a way to end that, and now it transfers over to Haas Factory Team. We’ll see if it’s the same type of successful organization that is has been for so many years. What a special place with the environment that came with Stewart-Haas Racing. It wasn’t like anywhere else. It was a racer’s mentality in everything that we did. And allowed me to win a championship and work with a lot of great people for a decade. Hard to believe that it is gone today.”

Tony Stewart reflects on Stewart-Haas closing after NASCAR championship race

At one point not too long ago, Stewart-Haas was one of NASCAR’s most successful teams. Stewart’s arrival in 2009 legitimized the organization. His capturing of the Cup Series championship in 2011 signaled they would be a player for years to come. Stewart-Haas won 70 races in 16 seasons, with Stewart and Harvick leading the way. However, facing sponsorship and manufacturer-support challenges, Stewart made the tough decision to get out of NASCAR ownership.

Haas will remain involved, with Haas Factory Team running one full-time Cup Series charter in 2025 (Cole Custer, No. 41 Ford). Stewart reflected on his run as an owner following the race at Phoenix.

“When you think of how it started and where it ended up at the end of the day. I mean we did some pretty remarkable things as a group and had some great people that just all they cared about was winning races,” Stewart told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “That’s all they boiled down to. So, it’s nice to have a group like that, do the things we did and just a hell of a journey.”