Ryan Flores talks the gamut of emotions with the closure of Stewart-Haas Racing

The impending closure of Stewart-Haas Racing has left many in NASCAR melancholy, remembering some of the incredible times the organization produced during its heyday.

Ryan Flores, a pit crew member for Ryan Blaney, joined the Stacking Pennies podcast with Corey LaJoie recently to discuss his memories of SHR as a former team member.

Flores was with SHR in the early 2010s, winning the 2011 Sprint Cup Series championship with Tony Stewart. At that time, SHR was absolutely loaded with top-notch talent from pit crew to drivers.

“You almost felt like an honor to be there,” Flores explained.

Like most organizations, Stewart-Haas Racing went through its ebbs and flows over the years. Flores left in 2013, but not before making some memories and friendships that would last a lifetime.

He remembers the organization fondly.

“It’s tough to see it shut down, but it goes to show, man, none of this stuff’s going to last forever,” Flores said. “It’s a small blip in time. And I wish nothing but the best for Gene (Haas) and for Tony and what they’ve done in the sport is great. It’s hard.”

Flores recalls when things started to change for him at SHR back in the early 2010s, following the tremendous success with Stewart driving.

“They let Bobby Hutchens go that year and it kind of started feeling a little bit less like a family and more like a race team,” Flores recalled. “And then they get some new leadership and the team starts to grow and Danica (Patrick) comes in, Kurt (Busch) comes in, then they go from two teams to four teams and with that you have to hire more people. It was just more going on and it slowly lost its family feel to me. And I ended up leaving the end of the 2013 season, going over to Penske, been there ever since.

“But I have some of my fondest memories from that shop. Some of my dear friends still work there or friendships came from there.”

Flores’ main takeaway from the Stewart-Haas Racing closure is that you can’t count on anything being permanent in this business. But that’s something most should be aware of by now.

There are dozens of examples of seeming staples vanishing with time.

“I was thinking back at it, nobody ever thought they’d see the sport without Junior Johnson‘s teams,” Flores said. “Nobody ever thought at the time you’d see the sport without Holman-Moody. It’s just the progression of the sport, it changes. And that’s why it’s so impressive what the Wood brothers have been able to do and what Petty’s been able to do, stay involved in the sport for so long. It’s fricking hard, man.”