What remains of Stewart-Haas Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series is now the single car Haas Factory Team No. 41 driven by Cole Custer.
That car has a technical alliance with fellow Ford Performance stablemate RFK Racing. That relationship also includes the hiring of Aaron Kramer to serve as crew chief for the No. 41 after previously serving as a lead engineer for the RFK Racing No. 17 and driver Chris Buescher.
That connective tissue between the two teams is important as detailed by Haas team president Joe Custer over the weekend on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Meanwhile, Kramer also joined SiriusXM on Tuesday and explained his conviction that the Haas Factory No. 41 will have every resource as the three RFK Racing cars.
“It is as probably well ingrained as far as our visibility into what RFK is doing as you could hope for,” Kramer said. “Obviously, we’re in separate buildings with separate people and different tools and different ways of putting cars together. But I have the benefit of knowing how RFK operated for a long time. So, I have that experience. But I have not asked for something and been told no yet. And it’s been explained to us exactly like you said. This is a pseudo-fourth car in terms of the support we’re going to get.
“They’re not going to do us any favors on the racetrack. We’re still out there to race. But as far as getting setups and different race car theory ideas from them, I have not seen a difference in what I’ve gotten so far versus what I got when I sat in that building. So, I’m excited for it.
“I know the years I was there [at RFK] the first car you wanted to beat was your teammate and I expect that’s the same attitude going forward. Just because we have a technical alliance doesn’t mean we’re going to get help that other people would or wouldn’t otherwise get. So, we’re still going to have to race those guys. But yeah, I’ve been impressed with what we’ve gotten so far and it’s been explained in simple terms that whatever we’ll need, we’ll get.”
How he landed the 41 job
Cole Custer actually made the first phone call to ask if Kramer would be interested in making the move over to Haas Factory before the RFK Racing alliance even materialized.
“At the time, I was still under contract to Roush and largely dismissed it,” Kramer said. “We had a really good thing going with Chris and I was just biding my time. I wasn’t in a hurry to take on this role if it wasn’t the right time and the driver driver, right shop and right resources to make it successful. I was happy doing what we were doing.
“Then it started to materialize into ‘this is going to be an alliance team’ and there will be all the familiar tools and processes over how the cars get built and go to the race track. Obviously, Cole is a successful driver and so this wasn’t a high risk change for me. We have all the right technology and people to be successful.
“It came down to me feeling like I had learned all there was to learn in that role. I felt like I was ready. I felt like Cole’s pitch about the alliance, and where he was at in his career was really attractive to me. I feel like I could be successful in doing it. The resources that SHR had were kept in place minus the headcount and we still have good people. There’s no reason we can’t be successful right out of the gate.”
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