Following Tony Stewart’s departure in 2024, Stewart-Haas Racing sold three of its four charters. However, as per leading NASCAR broadcaster Steve Letarte, the team could sell it to focus on its other NASCAR operations.

NASCAR broadcaster Steve Letarte suggests Haas Factory Team could soon exit the Cup Series. Letarte believes selling their $100 million charter would allow the organization to fully fund its secondary series operations.

In a recent episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Dale Jr. discussed the future of Haas Factory Team and Cole Custer in the NASCAR Cup Series. Speaking about the future of the Chevrolet team, Letarte, who does not see a bright prospect in the team, said the following:

"There's a Haas. Like, there's just not a lot of inventory out there for these charters. If you sell it for a hundred million, you can run a lot of O'Reilly for a long time and have a pretty, you know, the interest on your money would probably pay for your O'Reilly effort."

Notably, after Stewart left, Gene Haas could not afford to run all of them alone. In the end, SHR was rebranded to the Haas Factory Team, and they continued with one charter for Cole Custer.

Now, coming into recent seasons, HFT is far from profitable in the Cup Series, as the team neither qualified for the playoffs nor won a race last season. Coming into 2026, things do not look any different.

Furthermore, extracting performance with one charter in NASCAR is harder to imagine as the teams do not have enough data to bank on. As a result, selling the charter to rivals in the Cup Series and focusing on the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series could open up a different profitable horizon for the team.

What Is Haas' NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series scenario?

Currently, the Haas Factory Team is one of the best in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. They have two charters for Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer, and have enjoyed fairly successful outings in recent times.

Creed, their star driver, is currently in fourth place in the Drivers' Standings with 510 points after 15 races. So far, he has racked up a victory, six Top fives, and 10 top 10s. The other driver, Sam Mayer, is in 11th place with 376 points, three top fives and six top 10s. Both drivers are within the Chase threshold.

And now, selling their Cup Series charter to invest heavily in the NOAPS can boost their O'Reilly operations heavily. Furthermore, they can bank on the experience Cole Custer will bring, which is expected to help in the overall growth of the Haas Factory Team.

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Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Kaamna Dwivedi