Haas to switch from Ford to Chevrolet in NASCAR 2026

Gene Haas‘ NASCAR division will return to its roots in 2026 as Haas Factory Team switches back to Chevrolet. Hendrick Motorsports will serve as technical supplier and engine supplier for Haas at both the Cup and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series levels.

Cole Custer will remain in the #41 Cup Series car, while Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer respectively return to the #00 and #41 in the second tier. Custer is the son of team president Joe Custer.

A longtime Hendrick sponsor, Haas formed his NASCAR team, initially known as Haas CNC Racing, in 2002. Save for a one-year stint with outgoing General Motors sister Pontiac, Haas was a Chevrolet loyalist through and through. This continued after Tony Stewart, also a die-hard Chevy guy who never felt like himself driving for Toyota, became co-owner and rebranded the team to Stewart-Haas Racing.

SHR would become one of the premier organisations in the Cup Series. Whereas Haas CNC failed to win a race and was a midpack team at best, Stewart-Haas won two Cup Series titles with Stewart and Kevin Harvick. Hendrick also continued to be their engine builder.

“Personally, I have a deep history with Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports,” Haas commented. “Both helped in establishing not only my presence as a team owner in NASCAR, but also the presence of Haas Automation. Together, we were able to build a race team that competed for wins and championships while growing the use of Haas CNC machinery throughout the racing and manufacturing industries.”

However, SHR surprised the world in 2017 when they defected to Ford. The Blue Oval was looking for a spark to revitalise their struggling Cup Series programme and to keep their massive engine department employed, while SHR would be given a higher step in the Ford totem pole than at Chevrolet.

The Ford era ultimately started strong but ended in disappointment. They won 34 Cup Series races and claimed the 2023 Xfinity Series championship with Custer, and were especially impressive in 2018 and 2020 as Harvick won eight and nine times each. However, they also failed to record any Cup titles and were on a slow decline as NASCAR switched to the Next Gen car. With things unravelling, Stewart sold his stake back to Haas ahead of the 2025 season.

In their maiden season under their new identity, Haas Factory Team has been fairly mediocre. Custer sits 33rd in Cup points with just two top-ten finishes, while Creed and Mayer both qualified for the Xfinity Series playoffs but only have one win courtesy of Mayer.

While grateful for Ford’s collaboration over the past eight years, HFT was clearly at the bottom of the marque’s priority list in Cup. Although they are the flagship Ford team in Xfinity, there is barely much support there to begin with.

“We want to thank Ford for its partnership. Their support allowed us to establish Haas Factory Team and we remain dedicated to delivering results for them in Cup and Xfinity all the way through the season finale in Phoenix,” the older Custer stated.

Ford’s Xfinity presence dwindles

Ford obviously has a deep legacy in NASCAR, and that extends to the Xfinity Series as well. They were the first company not owned by General Motors to win a Busch Series manufacturer’s title in 1995, and are only two years removed from claiming their sixth driver’s championship with Custer and SHR in 2023.

However, the Xfinity Series also seems to be Ford’s most neglected division. Only two other teams, AM Racing and RSS Racing, use the Mustang on a regular basis in the series. Both are solid operations, with AM’s Harrison Burton also in the playoffs while RSS Racing’s owner/driver Ryan Sieg just narrowly missed it, but the gap between them and the factory teams from Chevy and Toyota is glaring.

Ford has not won an Xfinity manufacturer’s championship since 2013 when Roger Penske and Jack Roush operated feeder teams. Their teams were weekly favourites in the Busch and Nationwide Series eras, but those divisions were shuttered due to costs and focusing solely on Cup.

With Haas no longer in the picture, Ford could look to reinvest their limited factory support between AM and RSS. Burton’s #25 is the only full-time entry from the former while RSS fields the #39 for Sieg and the #28 for his brother Kyle, and both teams also have part-time cars that appear on very few occasions.

Still, expanding either team requires more than just Ford Racing support as they’d also need sponsors and possibly a proper driver development system. Ford no longer maintains the latter, with the closest being their Truck Series regulars.