Gene Haas

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Lore & Background

Haas graduated from California State University, Northridge in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting and finance. He originally majored in engineering but switched to business after Lockheed nearly went bankrupt. However, his summer machine shop jobs paid the same amount as the work he was able to find after graduation so he kept working as a machinist and CNC programmer and in 1978 hired two people to work with him in his small machine shop he named Pro-turn Engineering. In 1980, Haas noticed that it took one of his employees a long time to manually position an indexer. Haas thought that building his own indexer with a stepper motor drive would be more efficient. He built one for himself and a few more for other machine shops. In March 1983, he displayed his indexer at WESTEC. After seeing the positive reaction of attendees, he decided to form Haas Automation to mass-produce them. His first commercial product, the HBI-5C (Haas Brothers Indexer), sold well because it was programmable and inexpensive. In 1986, Haas and a partner were awarded a US patent for their invention. In 1988, Haas started production on a fully enclosed CNC machine priced well below the competition. By 1996, Haas had outgrown its facilities in Chatsworth, California, and began a search that ultimately brought it to Oxnard, California. In March 1997, the move was completed into the Oxnard factory, a 420,000-square-foot facility. By 2005, the factory had been expanded to 1,000,000 square feet. Haas Automation is now the largest machine tool manufacturer in the United States. Sales for 2014 reached a record, reportedly exceeding $1 billion worldwide.

In Their Own Story

In 2002, Haas formed a NASCAR race team, Haas CNC Racing. After purchasing the Concord, North Carolina–based Craftsman Truck race facility from Hendrick Motorsports, Haas CNC Racing began work on its first entry in the Winston Cup Series as a single-car team. The first entry for the new team was September 30, 2002, with driver Jack Sprague, who finished 35th after a crash. The team raced only three times in 2002. By 2003 the team was running full-time with several driver changes over the season. The team won its first race in the then-Busch Series in 2004 with driver Jason Leffler. By 2006 the team had relocated to a new, state-of-the-art facility in Kannapolis, North Carolina, and was fielding a full-time two car team in the Cup Series. At the end of 2008, the team was still struggling with a career-average finish of just under 27th place. Late in 2008, Haas announced that he would join forces with driver Tony Stewart; Stewart would drive for the team and in return would be given a 50% stake in the company. Stewart led the points for much of 2009, winning four times at Pocono, Daytona, Watkins Glen, and Kansas, ending up sixth in points. Stewart had a mediocre 2010 before picking up wins at Atlanta and Fontana, while Newman won at Phoenix. Stewart won the 2011 Sprint Cup Championship, winning five of the ten Chase races. Haas was present at the first team win in May 2009 when Stewart won the All-Star Race. Haas also joined Stewart on the podium at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 20, 2011, as Stewart won the Ford EcoBoost 400 that day and claimed his third Sprint Cup Championship. Stewart-Haas won their second Cup title with Kevin Harvick in 2014. On September 30, 2015, Stewart announced his retirement from the Cup Series as a driver following the 2016 season. The team closed after the 2024 season. Haas opened Haas Factory Team, solely owned by him in 2025.

Reader's Guide

Haas F1 Team fans can trace the team's origins to Haas's earlier NASCAR success. With Cole Custer's victory in the Truck Series event at New Hampshire in September 2014, Haas joined a select club of owners who have won as an owner in all three national touring series, joining Rick Hendrick, Richard Childress, Jack Roush, Bill Davis and Dale Earnhardt. In 2006, planning began for a commercial wind tunnel. Haas commissioned California-based Triliad Development to oversee the project. The facility was designed to be the most advanced automotive wind tunnel in the world. The facility is centered on an MTS rolling road which allows a car to be restrained in place directly on top of a massive tread mill-like machine with a 70-foot-long by 10-foot-wide by 1 mm thick stainless steel belt rotating at speeds up to 180 miles per hour. The rolling road accurately simulates the dynamics of a car on the race track, unlike traditional fixed-floor tunnels. Construction of the new wind tunnel began in 2007 and was completed by year-end. After six months of commissioning, the wind tunnel opened to its first customer, a Formula One race team, in July 2008. Today the Wind Shear facility counts numerous NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula One and American Le Mans Series teams as customers. Wind Shear is owned 100% by Haas.

Did You Know?

• Haas was arrested by IRS agents on June 19, 2006, on suspicion of filing false tax returns, witness intimidation, and conspiracy. He pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to commit tax evasion and was sentenced to two years in prison, ordered to pay $75 million in restitution.
• The Gene Haas Foundation was founded in 1999 and by 2022 had provided more than $27 million in grants that year, bringing total donations to more than $175 million.
• Haas's first commercial product, the HBI-5C (Haas Brothers Indexer), was displayed at WESTEC in March 1983 and sold well because it was programmable and inexpensive.
• Haas Automation's Oxnard factory expanded from 420,000 square feet in 1997 to 1,000,000 square feet by 2005.
• Haas joined a select club of owners who have won in all three national NASCAR touring series after Cole Custer's Truck Series win at New Hampshire in September 2014.