“Is this weird as f*** to you?”: Potential rift in Tony Stewart’s NASCAR team has insiders puzzled

The recently wrapped up NASCAR Cup Series event Advent Health 400 was hosted by the Kansas Motor Speedway and Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson reigned supreme. Larson stole the win from Chris Buescher's hands as he crossed the start/finish line just 0.001 seconds ahead of the latter.

However, before the 268-lap run kicked off, a study group oversight, wherein all Stewart Haas Racing drivers were present except Ryan Preece caught the NASCAR fraternity by storm. The instance has left NASCAR insiders including spotters Brett Griffin and Freddie Kraft and T.J Majors puzzled about a potential crack inside the SHR garage.

Motorsports journalist Toby Christie revealed that Noah Gragson, Chase Briscoe, and Josh Berry were part of a study group in which they analyzed their race data to improve upcoming stints but Ryan Preece wasn't. When Christie highlighted Preece's absence from the session, the driver was caught off guard and revealed having no information on the same.

Witnessing the massive communication gap between the SHR employees, NASCAR insiders were left in a dilemma about the possible rift inside the Stewart-backed team as they laid bare their views, saying (via Dirty Mo Media on X):

Bubba Wallace's spotter Freddie Kraft felt the situation to be very weird and questioned fellow spotter Brett Griffin, saying:

"Is this weird as f*** to you?"

Griffin replied:

"It's not a good look in my opinion."

T.J added:

"I just would have left it alone. I don't feel like this meeting is the make it break it for the weekend."

Ryan Preece reveals having "no idea" about the study group going inside Tony Stewart's NASCAR team

Ryan Preece revealed that he got to know about the study group from the pre-race shocker unveiled through a series of Tweets by Toby Christie and was "frustrated" upon learning about being sidelined from the team's affairs.

Tony Stewart-backed team had a winless 2023 season haven't portrayed a promising result so far in 2024 as well. With four top-10s and 290 points in the bag, Chase Briscoe is the highest-placed SHR driver at P14, whereas Preece is the worst-performing driver with a solitary top 10.

With the constant decline in the performance slope, many have speculated that the Kannapolis-based outfit is downsizing its operations and their first step is selling off Ryan Preece's charter.

Moving forward, the #41 Ford driver has spoken on the matter and revealed having "no idea" of the study group and expressed his displeasure, saying (via SiriusXM NASCAR Radio):

"I had no idea that they, or whoever, was starting those and obviously I found that out when I saw that Tweet, so I was a little frustrated at the time because I feel like as a racecar driver, I'm always trying to outwork everybody in all aspects." (0.18)

Chase Briscoe is currently the highest-ranked driver from Stewart-Haas Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series driver's standings at 14th position, followed by Noah Gragson and Josh Berry at 19th and 23rd respectively, while Ryan Preece is 29th.