2025 Cup Series Team Preview: Haas Factory Team

Cole Custer (left) returns to the NASCAR Cup Series this year with the retooled Haas Factory Team. (HFT photo)

Tale of the Tape:

Driver: Cole Custer

Age: 27

Experience: Enters fourth full-time season

Crew Chief: Aaron Kramer

2024 season: Runner-up in Xfinity Series standings; two wins, 14 top fives, 23 top 10s

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. – Last season brought the groundbreaking news that Stewart-Haas Racing would depart from the NASCAR Cup Series and close at season’s end.

Now officially rebranded and through with a franchise makeover, this year begins a new era for Haas Factory Team and its driver, 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer.

The organization downsized from a four-car operation to just a single entry in the Cup Series. Charters from the Nos. 4, 10 and 14 are being utilized by different teams, as 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports and Trackhouse Racing all purchased one of the team’s old charters.

Meanwhile, team owner Gene Haas moves forward with the No. 41 for Custer.

While things are new for both the organization and fans of the Haas label, one factor is not when it comes to familiarity. Custer returns to the Cup Series grid full-time for the team, after his Xfinity Series title run two years ago largely revived his NASCAR career.

While success overnight is not imminent for a rebranded team, the Ladera Ranch, Calif., native brings experience from having been at the Cup level before, as well as confidence with being a Xfinity Series champion.

Potential Tracks of Contention: 

• Bristol Motor Speedway: (Finished eighth in 2022 with Stewart-Haas Cup team)
• Darlington Raceway: (Has a 2019 Xfinity Series win and four top fives in 2023-‘24)
• Dover Motor Speedway: (Has two top 10 finishes from 2023-‘24)

Throughout his career, Custer has found success on concrete and old, worn-out racing surfaces. Take his first and lone career Cup Series win from Kentucky Speedway in 2020 as an example.

Having gone through the process of taking a step back to build back up, Custer can be a dark horse, similar to the likes of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Erik Jones, or Michael McDowell as veteran drivers who can become elite at specific tracks on the schedule.

The goal this season is to add to an already full notebook that the Haas brand has built since 2009 at the Cup Series level, while gaining new experience as a slimmed-down, single-car team.

What could help is their technical alliance with the now three-car RFK Racing squad, but being a one-car team allows all attention and resources to go toward Custer’s efforts each weekend.

The 2025 Cup Series season begins with the non-points Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Feb. 2, followed by the 67th annual Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway on Sunday, Feb. 16.

Coverage of both races will air on FOX, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.