Haas Factory Team Will Be 'Pseudo Fourth [RFK] Car' Says Crew Chief Aaron Kramer

Talking with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Aaron Kramer, crew chief for Cole Custer and Haas Factory Team in 2025, says the No. 41 will serve as a "pseudo fourth car" as part of its technical alliance with RFK Racing.

Haas Factory Team, with driver Cole Custer, will be serving as a pseudo fourth RFK Racing entry in 2025, as part of the team's technical alliance with the three-car organization. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

With the start of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series campaign just around the corner, there are a lot of firsts on the horizon for Haas Factory Team.

It’s the first season under the organization’s new identity, shedding the name of three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart for the first time since 2009, and scaling its program down to just a single entry, which Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer will drive.

The shot-caller for the No. 41 Ford Mustang Dark Horse is also a first time, with Aaron Kramer moving over from an engineering role at RFK Racing to lead the team into what everybody hopes is a successful first season.

Needless to say, it’s been a busy off-season for Kramer – between getting the ducks in a row for the transition between Stewart-Haas Racing and Haas Factory Team and preparing for his first season as a crew chief.

“I’ve been professionally in NASCAR since 2010, and this is certainly the busiest off-season that I’ve had yet,” Kramer told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “We always feel like we’re up against a mountain trying to get through everything in the off-season, but we seem to make it to Daytona each year and it will be no different this year, but it’s certainly been a large list to get to where we are, and we still have a long way to go.”

The new position is a dream for Kramer, whose ultimate goal throughout his decade-plus career in NASCAR has been to become a crew chief. Now, with the help of Haas Factory Team, the 35-year-old is in a position to be successful while doing just that at NASCAR’s highest level.

“Cole [Custer] reached out to me and asked if I had plans for [2025], and at the time I was still under contract with [RFK Racing] and largely dismissed it, to be total candid. We had a really good thing going with Chris [Buescher],” Kramer said. “I was biding my time, I wasn’t in a hurry to take on this role if it wasn’t the right opportunity and the right driver, the right shop and all the right resources to make it successful. I was happy doing what we were doing.”

Upon finding out that Haas Factory Team would be operating within the technical umbrella of RFK Racing, Kramer’s mindset changed, with the familiarity of the tools, processes, and how the racecars being built all being main attractors to taking on the job.

“Cole is a successful race car driver, so this wasn’t a high-risk change for me, I don’t feel like,” Kramer added. “[…] It really came down to, do I think I’m ready to do it, and I’ve been in the sport for a while and learned as much as I can learn in that role, so I felt like I was ready and Cole’s sales pitch for the alliance and where he’s at in his career really attracted me to feel like I could do this, and be successful in doing this.”

The alliance will allow Kramer to have a sense of familiarity, despite working in a completely different ship with a new group of people. But, just how tight will this alliance between Haas Factory Team and RFK Racing be?

“It’s probably as well engrained – as far as our visibility into what RFK Is doing – as you could hope for, obviously we’re in separate buildings with separate people and different tools, and different ways of putting cars together, but I have the benefit of knowing how RFK operated for a long time,” Kramer said. “I have that experience, but I have not asked for something and been told no yet, and it’s been explained to us, this is a pseudo fourth car in terms of the support that we’re going to get.”

“I have not seen a difference in what I’ve gotten so far from when I sat in that building.”

That level of co-operation between the two organizations makes Kramer believe that it’s realistic for Haas Factory Team to be successful in its first year as a refurbished organization, but it’s still going to take a lot of work.

“The resources that [Haas Factory Team] has are phenomenal and they kept all of those resources except for the head count, and we’ve got some good people. There’s no reason that we can’t go out and be successful right out of the gate. It’s going to take a lot of work to get there, it doesn’t happen just because you say you want it to.”

Kramer and Cole Custer will work together for the first time in the NASCAR Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, on Sunday, February 2 at 8:00 PM ET. Coverage of the event will be live on FOX, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).