Kevin Harvick hints at exciting NASCAR Silly Season following SHR's closure: "It's going to be a war for good people"

NASCAR veteran Kevin Harvick talked about the recent release of the official statement by Tony Stewart and Gene Haas concerning their four-car charter team. Harvick discussed the after-effects of his former outfit's closing by the end of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.

After weeks of rumors and speculations, Stewart-Haas Racing's co-owners in a joint statement announced that they would cease their four Cup Series car operation with the conclusion of the 2024 season.

Former SHR driver Harvick in a recent episode of Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour podcast claimed that the top organizations of NASCAR would go on a "war for the people" who are within the Stewart-Haas Racing team, to lock them before the commencement of 2025 NASCAR Cup Series.

The 2014 Cup Series champion in a video posted on X (formerly Twitter) said:

"Well, it's going to be a war for the people, the good people. It's going to be a war between all the top teams in a contest to see who can get the best people that are within SHR. There are a lot of good people within SHR. And people are hard to come by." [0:15]

"Good engineers, good crew chiefs, good management, all those things exist at SHR. And every team in the garage wants them because they want a proven commodity that they don't have to develop, that they can bring into their organization and make an immediate impact. There's a lot of those people that are within SHR still," Harvick added [at 0:31].

The 48-year-old Harvick retired at the end of the 2023 season. He competed full-time for SHR driving the #4 Ford Mustang. He hung his helmet with a 13th-place finish in the 2023 Cup Series standings, with 6 top-fives, and 14 top-tens.

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Kevin Harvick believes that the #4 team was the "backbone" of SHR

NASCAR driver turned commentator Kevin Harvick credited the #4 team for keeping the SHR as an organization together over the last 10 years.

Speaking on Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour podcast, the Bakersfield native said:

"I think the people around the #4 car over the last 10 years are really what held that company together. I think that company was held together by the success of the #4 car - Rodney Childers and that group of people."

"Once that backbone of all that kind went away...It started poking holes at the top side of the upper management and everything that goes with running a race team," Harvick added [at 0:52].

After the recent developments with the SHR team, Harvick expressed that it was tough for him as he noted that many people have put a lot of time and effort into the organization.

Harvick also believed that a structured management and organization would have pushed the team forward to make things better at SHR.