Rodney Childers hardly goes down into the basement of his North Carolina dwelling.

The basement is the place you will as a substitute discover his teenage twin sons, Gavin and Brody, watching tv or different actions. Earlier this month, although, when Childers began going by memorabilia in his Stewart-Haas Racing workplace, he wanted to go down there.

“I began cleansing my workplace out, which sucked, and while you’ve been there for 11 years and all the pieces we have executed as a group, that was emotional,” Childers stated. “Then you definitely’re loading the truck up and I received dwelling, and I had the entire household carrying trophies and issues all the way down to the basement. It was like, ‘The place are we going to place this?’ After they all walked again upstairs, I began wanting round and I used to be like, ‘That is fairly unbelievable.'”

Childers needed to clear out his workplace as a result of Stewart-Haas Racing will shut its doorways in little greater than every week. The 2024 NASCAR season finale at Phoenix Raceway would be the group’s final race.

Now his basement is full of trophies, die-cast automobiles, champagne bottles, firesuits and extra from Cup Collection races he is received as crew chief of the No. 4 automobile with Kevin Harvick.

“I want I had paid the additional cash to get each trophy,” Childers stated. “Kevin was shopping for me trophies each time we received a race. Properly, in 2018, we began successful a lot they lower me off. Kevin received to $92,000 on trophies. Then it occurred once more in 2020.

“I want I had gotten all of them as a result of 20 or 30 years from now, that is all you have received is to take a seat round and inform tales and take a look at trophies. So, I want I had all of them, but it surely’s nonetheless loads. We’re out of room.”

Childers and Harvick will go down as essentially the most profitable pairing in Stewart-Haas Racing’s historical past. The duo received the 2014 sequence championship — of their first yr working collectively — and 37 races by the point Harvick retired in 2023.

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Harvick desires Stewart-Haas to be remembered for its tradition and what co-owner and three-time Cup Collection champion Tony Stewart introduced there. The race store had a blue-collar, racer’s perspective, and if there was work to be executed and methods to be quicker, there have been individuals who may make it occur.

“I used to be lucky to be given the keys of, ‘Hey, we wish you to come back in right here and assist us work out methods to make this group run quick,'” Harvick stated to ESPN. “I had much more enter than I’d have at plenty of different locations due to the connection I had with Tony and I believed in that tradition they’d. That is what drew all of the individuals who beloved racing to come back work there.”

What is going to stand out for Harvick is that these at Stewart-Haas thrived on pulling off what others thought could not be executed. Simply take a look at the motive force lineup by the years and the number of personalities in a single constructing. With the likes of Stewart, Harvick, Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer, Danica Patrick, there have been as many highlights as there was perspective.

“It was about doing the perfect we may with who and what we had, and pairing up no matter driver with a [crew chief] that might both tolerate or problem that individual,” Greg Zipadelli, the competitor director at Stewart-Haas, informed ESPN. “Even the drivers at occasions did not all the time see eye to eye, however they went out and revered one another for his or her expertise ranges.”

Zipadelli has been at Stewart-Haas from the start. Not solely has he seen all of it, he performed an element in making it work. All through the years, the group grew from two Cup Collection entries to 4, after which got here the Xfinity Collection program that went from one automobile to 2.

Stewart-Haas Racing has a complete of 105 victories: 70 within the Cup Collection and 28 within the Xfinity Collection. There may be additionally a lone ARCA Menards Collection West win. Among the many victories are triumphs within the 4 crown jewel occasions: the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, Brickyard 400 and Southern 500.

There have been additionally six non-point occasion wins within the Cup Collection together with 87 poles between the Cup, Xfinity and ARCA. Stewart, Harvick, and Cole Custer have received driver championships for Stewart-Haas.

“Truthfully, it is exhausting and miserable as a result of through the years I really feel everybody has executed an excellent job,” Zipadelli stated. “You take a look at the wins and championships for the period of time we have been in enterprise, I feel it has been a stable accomplishment. It is positively disappointing to see all of it breaking apart.”

Childers would love Stewart-Haas to be remembered by these within the storage for the innovation that got here from the group. He hopes there may be an appreciation for the pure expertise and genius that got here from looking for new methods to succeed.

Within the dominant years Childers and Harvick had, the storage by no means caught as much as what they have been doing. It was merely unattainable as a result of Childers fondly remembers how the competitors by no means knew what Stewart-Haas have been doing or after they have been doing it.

“We’d simply preserve altering,” Childers stated. “There was a lot ingenuity, whether or not it was within the our bodies or once we have been constructing our personal chassis.

“All these races we received in 2018 and 2020, we had what we referred to as a front-mount-shock automobile the place the bump-stop load was going by the entrance, and the brakes have been on the again. What it was doing was elevating the splitter up a half inch within the nook and it might decrease the entire remainder of the cage within the roof a half inch. No person else may determine it out.

“It was exhausting employees. It was ingenuity. It was simply racers. That is actually what it was about. And having some hard-nosed drivers, too.”

The tip for Stewart-Haas comes with a whimper as a substitute of a bang. Chase Briscoe received at Darlington Raceway in early September, the group’s first victory since 2022 and what may very well be its final. The efficiency throughout the board for its groups has not been to the requirements of what was as soon as routine.

And because it occurs in racing, there have been drivers who got here and went. Harvick’s retirement left a gap within the group. Stewart is fortunately centered on his household and NHRA drag racing. The corporate has misplaced sponsorship funding with the exit of a number of companions all through the years.

“I assumed it was actually cool to see a man are available in and stick his neck out in sure areas, whether or not or not it’s financially or simply from a sheer time standpoint and being unfold skinny,” Chase Elliott stated to ESPN of Stewart. “I all the time thought it was actually cool that he went out and did that and had success with it and made it work. You hate to see them go simply because the general well being of our sport desires and desires wholesome race groups, they usually’ve been a wholesome race group. I hate to see that.

“However they’ve had a stable legacy. Anytime you will have one thing finish like that, it is very easy to overlook all the great that went on and simply take a look at what’s occurred previously yr or no matter. However I nonetheless admire their efforts to go and be what they’ve turn out to be and be a top-tier group in NASCAR. That is a tough factor to do they usually did that.”

Briscoe does not need the lasting picture of Stewart-Haas to be the way it’s ending. The very first thing he hopes is remembered is what number of races the group received.

“It is loopy to suppose that a spot as profitable because it was, in such a brief window may very well be within the place now the place it is closing down,” Briscoe informed ESPN. “It ought to be remembered as this place that was actually, actually dominant in its time, and it is unhappy to see it go. It should not be remembered for what it was the final two or three years. It ought to be remembered what it was in its heyday.”

There are greater than 300 workers at Stewart-Haas. A majority of them are headed for brand spanking new alternatives or a distinct chapter in life. Some will stick with co-owner Gene Haas as he begins Haas Manufacturing facility Workforce, out of the identical constructing, subsequent season.

Joey Logano finds it exhausting to make use of one phrase or a succinct strategy to describe the group’s legacy, however its success and what it is executed for individuals within the business simply come to thoughts.

“They received loads,” Logano informed ESPN. “What Tony did there, being a driver that jumped into the possession function and was profitable at it, that is the primary time it occurred in a very long time when he did that. After which clearly including groups to it and all that. It was fairly spectacular to see.

“It is unhappy to see it go, however in addition they ought to be pleased with what they achieved with their championships and the influence they made within the sport for everyone. There have been plenty of jobs there and in our business. There’s lots of people who’ve actually benefited having them round.”

Sunday at Martinsville Speedway and Phoenix Raceway every week later would be the swan songs for Stewart-Haas. Ultimately, the group can have run 1,986 NASCAR nationwide sequence races.

“We simply did what we beloved to do and that is win races,” Zipadelli stated. “I am simply having a very exhausting time getting over that it is executed and it is type of blown up and [we’re] shifting on.”