Just when you thought Silly Season rumors were just limited to personnel and driver changes, in came Freddie Kraft with news that’s sure to leave you surprised. As a three-car team, Haas Factory Team might seem like a successor of Stewart-Haas Racing, but at heart, they realize it’s much more than that. Now, with Cole Custer struggling to make waves at the Cup level with nine laps led, four DNFs, two Top-10s and one Top-5, is Gene Haas really rethinking the team’s future? Let’s look at what insiders had to say.

On the September 1 episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Kraft divulged, “I heard some interesting stuff, which we had heard about a month ago. I think I said on here that SHR is potentially going to merge with Legacy in some sort. I heard that deal’s out the window,” before adding, “And SHR potentially going to Chevy…whatever they are, Haas Factory Team.” While the conversation didn’t go beyond co-host Tommy Baldwin unenthusiastically saying, “They can do whatever they want,” after Kraft enquired, “Is that floating around?” the prospect, if true, is pretty interesting.

This would mark a seismic shift in terms of OEM allegiance for Gene Haas. In his tenure with Ford, he had achieved massive success – although that was before the Next-Gen era. Teams now use single-source suppliers rather than spending millions engineering their own parts and pieces, an advantage that bigger organizations had in the past. The increased emphasis on software development, sim, and a different set of tools in the toolbox compelled Haas to rely on RFK Racing, with whom they have a technical alliance. In team president Joe Custer’s words last year, “We’re leaning on Brad (Keselowski) and his group at RFK to add to what our knowledge base is and help us evolve. Strategically, there’s resources that we can offer that can make their program stronger and vice versa.” But now, the days of this association is apparently limited, if rumors are to be believed.

And if so, this would also be a complete U-turn from what the executive had assured last year: “Along with Ford as a partner, we’re lacking no resources going into next year. People-wise, human capital…we’ve got the relationship, we’ve got the OEM.” So, expectedly, fans’ interests were piqued. But mostly with uncovering the negative sides of the potential rumor…

NASCAR fans dissect this sudden shift

Granted, Haas Factory Team was not faring well in the Cup Series. But the Ford team’s segment in the Xfinity Series has been excelling. Sam Mayer, who shifted from JR Motorsports and Chevrolet, has been at the top of the championship conversation. His dazzling victory at Iowa Speedway, 12 Top-5s, and 15 Top-10s enthralled fans. Hence, somebody lamented about the NASCAR rumor: “Bye, bye Ford in the Xfinity Series.” Another fan also could not believe that Mayer’s achievements missed Haas’ gaze. So, they rooted out another explanation for the rumored OEM shift: “My guess would be Haas has some Chevy ties. His team was Chevy before he went to prison and sold part of it to Stewart. And it always seemed like Stewart was the one behind the switch to Ford.”

Another social media user opined, “What is Ford gonna do in Xfinity then? Hell, do they just leave the series entirely at this point? Just have some zombie Mustangs in the field for a while going forward?” Another person, though, was having none of it as he wrote, “Eh, close enough. Welcome back to the yearly SHR/HAAS back to Chevy rumor.” To this, one user agreed and wrote, “Yup. Would be a dumb move for them to go from Ford’s main team to Chevy’s 4th team in Xfinity before either Penske or RFK”. 

And then there was this one user who went down memory lane, writing:

“-Gene switches to Ford, damaging relationship with Smoke

-More shenanigans

-Stewart leaves

-Haas goes back to manufacturer Tony wanted in the first place???

8D Gene Haas chess i guess???” But that’s not all.

One fan wrote, “Assuming their xfinity team also changes to Chevy, that leaves very few Fords in the xfinity series for next season.” Others were not really bothered, considering HFT’s lackluster performance in the Cup Series. Cole Custer’s long string of finishes outside the top 30, coupled with 4 DNFs, is hardly encouraging. So a fan wrote sarcastically: “so instead of running 29th as a blue oval every week they’ll run 29th as a part of the bow tie brigade.”

Clearly, there seems to be a state of upheaval inside HFT’s fold. We can only wait and see if the NASCAR rumor turns into reality.