Haas Factory Team has made one thing quite clear after returning from the off-week. The team has no intentions of selling its charter and exiting the Cup Series.
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Team President Joe Custer made this statement on Saturday at Iowa Speedway while revealing that the team would expand the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series program to three cars and would sign Dean Thompson.
"We have unfinished business in the Cup Series as Haas Factory Team," Custer told media members. "So, no, we are dead committed. Gene Haas is an F1 owner and a NASCAR Cup owner, and also an O'Reilly owner, and we intend to keep it that way.
"His business is strong. He's a friend, a mentor, and also a passionate racer. So, we are going to try to figure out Cup as a single car team, and we got ways to go.
"But stay tuned. Stay tuned, because we're not happy. We're happy with what the trend has been recently. GM believes in us, our owner believes in us, our partners believe in us, our driver believes in us. We've got some cool things happening on the Cup side."
Haas Factory Team is all that exists of Stewart-Haas Racing. Once a four-car team, SHR sold three of its four charters while co-owner Tony Stewart exited the sport. Custer and Haas remained and forged on as a one-car operation with its remaining charter.
Cole Custer returned to the Cup Series full-time in 2025 and posted three top-10 finishes. He ended the season 32nd in the standings. This season, he is 30th in the standings after 22 races.
The team is not as competitive as it would like, even though it has a technical alliance with Hendrick Motorsports. But the team believes it will make progress.
"We have more of an interest in becoming closer and closer to GM and our technical partner," Custer added. "So, that's our vision, and we feel we have a lot to offer — weird stuff, not normal stuff. You know, manufacturing, things that aren't sexy, things that are behind the scenes that we try to leverage, and come to our partners, key players, whether it be GM, Hendrick, etc.
"I just want fast race cars? That's all I want out of it. I want to go to the front. We're not there yet. We've got some work to do, but stay tuned. We're not sitting around. We're moving."
