Stewart-Haas Racing will add an Xfinity Series team, beginning next season.
The organization, co-owned by Tony Stewart, currently races the Sprint Cup entries of Stewart, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick and Danica Patrick.
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Stewart-Haas Racing announced Monday it will add a full-time, single-car entry in Xfinity next year, with the driver and sponsor to be announced prior to the conclusion of this season.
Stewart spoke over the weekend about how his team didn’t really have a feeder program for its Cup entries in the case of a needed replacement driver. He added he would be willing to take on a role similar to that of Jeff Gordon at Hendrick. Gordon drove at Indianapolis and will again this weekend at Pocono in relief of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who remains sidelined with concussion-like symptoms.
Stewart is retiring from full-time Cup driving at the end of this season.
“We never thought of that actually,” he said when asked about finding the next generation of drivers or a replacement driver for someone at SHR, if needed. “It is something that I thought about since the talk came about Jeff getting back in the car. We don’t have a feeder system. We don’t have an Xfinity team. We don’t have anybody that’s in our system to bring up if that is the case.
“... I am definitely open to that scenario if it were to happen down the road and we needed somebody, I would be open to doing what Jeff is doing this weekend.”
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Now, he’ll also have an Xfinity team as of next season.
“An Xfinity Series team has always been something we would consider when the time was right, and that time is now,” Stewart said in a news release Monday. “Staying successful in this sport means staying ahead of the curve, and having an Xfinity Series team provides an in-house driver development program and a new channel for personnel to make a positive impact with our race team.”
Stewart-Haas has two Cup titles, with Stewart in 2011 and Harvick in 2014. It has 33 Sprint Cup race wins total.