NASCAR’s Most Hated Team Owners: Part 1

Team Owners are what keep the sport going. If no one’s there to field cars, there’s no more racing. So a lot of power and responsibility for one person or even a group of people. So, no shock, all of them aren’t the most popular.

But everyone has a different meaning; some are nicer, some are meaner, some are dumber, some are smarter, some are better, and some are worse. All things that play roles in what makes someone the most hated team owner in the sport. So you’ll be seeing a lot of the meaner, dumber, and worst owners in the sport.

Gene Haas

It takes a lot for someone to be extremely hated in the world’s top two motorsports, but Gene Haas has done exactly that. The owner of Haas Factory Team in the NASCAR Cup Series and the TGR Haas F1 Team. While in NASCAR, he was on top when his team was co-owned with legend Tony Stewart, but the moment he left Haas to become the owner of his own team again, he became irrelevant.

In F1, they’ve been nothing but irrelevant. Going from being pointless backmarkers at worst to competitive, but not ever the fastest midpack team at its best. In NASCAR, he’s also made some very unpopular moves.

Such as his mid-season firing of Jack Sprague early into his run as a team owner, firing Daniel Suarez after one season where he almost made the playoffs, and hiring Riley Herbst to his Xfinity team after he struggled on JGR. However, that ultimately worked out, with Herbst earning multiple wins and playoff appearances.

Why Gene Haas Is Universally Unpopular

What turns him from unpopular to universally hated is his shady off-the-track dealings. Before Tony Stewart briefly saved his rep as an owner, Gene Haas had been arrested for filing false tax returns, witness intimidation, and conspiracy. Four others were indicted together with Haas, all of whom pleaded guilty. Gene Haas included.

And recently, he’s shown he hasn’t changed from his criminal ways. As Gene Haas was recently investigated again, this time for violating U.S. sanctions by indirectly supplying CNC machines and parts to Russian entities, including those involved in the arms industry, after the Ukraine invasion.

F1 fans were already familiar with Gene Haas’s Russia ties, as in 2021, he hired a Russian pay driver, Nikita Mazepin, so desperate for that Uralkali cash (a company owned by Dmitry Mazepin, Nikita’s father, and someone with close ties to Putin), he didn’t fire him even after Nikita himself posted a video of him sexual harassing a model only a couple of weeks it was announced he’d be racing in F1 with Haas.

A video he quickly deleted after public backlash. And only let him go after he was forced to by the FIA due to sanctions from the Russia-Ukraine war. Even though he didn’t score a single point in 2021 and finished last more times than most people could bother to count.

Stint With Haas CNC Automation

The owner of HAAS CNC Automation held these between late 2019 and early 2022. In 2022, Russia was accused of many human rights violations. Such as torturing prisoners like Azat Miftakhov, who had been sent to six years in prison on allegations of throwing a Molotov cocktail into an empty office of the ruling party.

With many witnesses and documents showing the investigation and trial were marred by torture and reliance on “secret witnesses.” The other two defendants pleaded guilty but denied Miftakhov’s involvement.

Also in January 2022, a riot policeman was caught on camera kicking a person in the stomach who was standing in his way. After public outcry, the authorities aired a staged apology to the women on national TV while the women were in the hospital. Later, they claimed they were unable to identify the officer.

Gene Haas reached a settlement in which he paid over $2.5 million to resolve charges from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) for violating sanctions and export controls. Which is why he’s continued to own Haas Factory in NASCAR and Haas in F1, much to fans’ dismay.

Ron Devine

Maintaining the money and finding the money to continue funding your dream of owning a race team has always been a struggle. But it doesn’t excuse criminality or making fans believe a giant brand is investing in the sport when you’re only using the name to trick banks. Like BK Racing owner Ron Devine did.

Before he started one of the worst Cup teams in its time in the field, he owned many Burger King locations. This allowed him to have enough money to buy Red Bull Racing after it shut down and become the owner of his own Cup Series team.

But also why he was allowed to use Burger King logos and imagery free of charge, and Dr Pepper as well, owing to their partnership with the BK brand at the time. Meaning they weren’t being paid by BK to put their logos on their cars.

Bob Jenkins team owner of Front Row Motorsports, used a similar system as the owner of many Long John Silvers and Taco Bells. But the difference between the two team owners is ambition and work ethic. FRM got more and more sponsors as the team grew and earned better and better results. BK Racing was rarely seen with sponsors.

Why BK Racing Failed

The team was a joke, always in the back, being lapped by the leaders, and it only ever earned three top tens in its 520 total starts. Ruining the Cup Careers of promising young drivers like a former racing prodigy, who turned into someone accused of committing domestic violence, in Gray Gaulding, who joined the Cup backmarkers when he was nineteen.

And the likes of Jeb Burton rushed after two seasons of trucks, and Ryan Truex raced 20+ Cup races after never being full-time in any of NASCAR’s other national divisions. The team was sold to FRM in 2018, ironically enough, after Ron Devine’s scam unraveled and BK Racing announced its bankruptcy, all because of the owner’s own financial trouble.

That charter sell to FRM is exactly what would lead to BK Racing’s downfall. This transaction is the subject of a lawsuit filed by Union Bank & Trust Company, which alleges that the charter’s ownership was subject to a lien at the time of sale.

Owing to the team being reclaimed by the bank after the BK Racing owner, Ron Devine, lied about the team being owned by Burger King to take on more loans than they could pay. Ron Devine later pleaded guilty in federal court, admitting to having failed to account for and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in payroll taxes between 2012 and 2017 while being the owner of BK Racing.