Haas graduated from California State University, Northridge in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting and finance.

[citation needed] After graduation he was unable to find employment that paid more than what he was earning at his summer machine shop job.

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.

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.

[11] In December 2014, it was further reported that Haas purchased major assets from the bankrupted Marussia F1 team,[12] which was confirmed in early 2015.

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 (21 m) by 10-foot-wide (3.0 m) by 1 mm thick stainless steel belt rotating at speeds up to 180 miles per hour (290 km/h).

The rolling road accurately simulates the dynamics of a car on the race track, unlike traditional fixed-floor tunnels.

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.

[19] The Gene Haas Foundation was founded in 1999 to provide grants to Ventura County community charities as the Boys and Girls Clubs, Food Share, Rescue Mission, and others.

To do this, the foundation provides scholarship grants, sponsoring individual and team competitions that use CNC manufacturing technologies (such as the foundation's extensive sponsoring of FIRST Robotics Competition teams), and supporting CNC training programs.

[20] On June 19, 2006, Haas was arrested by IRS agents on suspicion of filing false tax returns, witness intimidation, and conspiracy.

Just before Haas's case was to go to trial, a plea agreement was reached, whereby he would plead guilty to felony conspiracy to commit tax evasion.

Haas was incarcerated beginning January 2008 and was released on probation on May 7, 2009, after serving 16 months of his two-year sentence.