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Gene Haas
Gene Francis Haas (born November 12, 1952) is the American founder, president, and sole stockholder of Haas Automation, a CNC machine tool manufacturer. He also has founded the NASCAR teams Haas CNC Racing, Stewart–Haas Racing and Haas Factory Team, as well as the Formula One team, Haas F1 Team.
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.[citation needed] 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 (an industry expo). 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 (39,000 m2) facility. By 2005, the factory had been expanded to 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m2).
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 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 (now known as the NASCAR Cup Series) 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 5 of the 10 Chase races.
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Gene Haas
Gene Francis Haas (born November 12, 1952) is the American founder, president, and sole stockholder of Haas Automation, a CNC machine tool manufacturer. He also has founded the NASCAR teams Haas CNC Racing, Stewart–Haas Racing and Haas Factory Team, as well as the Formula One team, Haas F1 Team.
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.[citation needed] 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 (an industry expo). 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 (39,000 m2) facility. By 2005, the factory had been expanded to 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m2).
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 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 (now known as the NASCAR Cup Series) 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 5 of the 10 Chase races.