According to Harris, the main difficulty lies in identifying the right process to make these parts: "In particular, we're focusing on reducing the number of set-ups needed, thus increasing production efficiency. Moving forward, we can turn our attention to the more advanced and complex components needed for the racing cars themselves."

While Haas F1 continues to establish itself and build on its solid start, the NASCAR team is setting the benchmark. The NASCAR workshop at Kannapolis is full of Haas CNC vertical machining centers and CNC lathes, including VF-6TRs with trunnion rotary tables, Mini Mills, VF-2s and VF-4s with HRT210 rotary tables.

"Compared with other motor racing championships, NASCAR requires the team to manage a much greater number of cars," explains Stewart-Haas Racing Shop Foreman, Todd Frazier. "We have 16 cars for each driver, including specific models for some races, such as Daytona, and new evolutions with greater performance. With four drivers at SHR, this means as many as 64 cars per season."

The cars are under continuous and very rapid development; for this reason output is a steady flow of small batches. Manufacturing technology plays a fundamental role in allowing the evolution process to take place.

"I'm convinced that machine tools and cars evolve hand-in-hand: to make more ‘evolved' cars we need better performing machines," says Frazier. "In particular, we need to implement the ideas of designers in a shorter timeframe, and this is where Haas machine tools can help, with their versatility, simplicity and reliability."

One of the team's main suppliers is Hendrick Motorsports, located less than 6 miles (10km) south of SHR (Hendrick is an institution in the NASCAR world, with 30 years of experience, and innumerable wins to boast of). With the growth of SHR, the collaboration has transformed into a strong technical partnership, which currently means Hendrick Motorsports supply's the chassis and engines for SHR cars.

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