Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation, Inc., is well known as a highly successful businessman. He is also co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, a successful NASCAR racing team.

Gene Haas has always been enthusiastic about auto racing. He has competed successfully in off-road truck racing, and sponsored numerous race teams through the years, in CART, IndyCar, and NASCAR, including a long-time partnership with Hendrick Motorsports. In 2002, Mr. Haas purchased the Craftsman Truck Race Facility from Hendrick Motorsports and formed his own NASCAR team, Haas CNC Racing.

Although his NASCAR efforts – made with a variety of drivers – met with moderate success, Gene Haas wanted to compete on a higher level. At the end of 2008, he surprised the racing world by partnering with NASCAR racing legend Tony Stewart to form a new team: Stewart-Haas Racing.

The new Stewart-Haas Racing team prepared for their 2009 inaugural season at the state-of-the-art race facility built by Gene Haas a few years earlier in Kannapolis, North Carolina. The team hired veteran driver Ryan Newman, the 2008 Daytona 500 champion, as a teammate for Tony Stewart, and geared up for the 2009 season. NASCAR fans and pundits were skeptical about the Gene Haas-Tony Stewart partnership, but both Stewart and Newman finished the 2009 season in the Top-10 – an almost unheard-of accomplishment for a first-season NASCAR team.

In 2010, the Stewart-Haas Racing team is widely recognized as the one of the most competitive teams in NASCAR.

Stewart-Haas Racing Charitable Giving

Gene Haas has always made charitable giving a part of his business. Since its inception in 1999, the Gene Haas Foundation has provided grants, gifts, and scholarships to more than 800 charitable and humanitarian groups and non-profit organizations. Similarly, the Stewart-Haas Racing team is dedicated to serving the community beyond the racetrack.

Gene Haas and Tony Stewart donate race memorabilia and items used in races – which are highly prized by collectors and race fans – to many charities. The sale, auction, or raffle of these items generates funds for education and youth programs, pet and wildlife organizations, disaster-relief organizations, programs for drivers injured in motorsports activities, and many other charities.