Addington to crew chief for Gibbs' No. 18 team

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. -- Steve Addington has been named Bobby Labonte's crew chief on the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet for the 2005 season, Joe Gibbs Racing officials announced Wednesday.

Addington comes to the No. 18 Interstate Batteries car after one year as crew chief for the No. 20 Rockwell Automation Busch Series car for JGR, which was driven by Mike Bliss and finished fifth in the final Busch point standings.

"Steve brings a great deal of racing knowledge and leadership to the Interstate Batteries team," said J.D. Gibbs, president of JGR. "He did a great job (last year), and we look forward to a lot of success with him in 2005."

During the 2004 season, Addington helped Bliss to his first career Busch Series victory Oct. 15 at Charlotte and 14 top-10 finishes. Prior to working with JGR, Addington was crew chief for Jason Keller in the Busch Series, first at KEL Racing from 1990-96 and then at PPC Racing from 1999-2003.

Addington, 40, becomes only the fourth crew chief in the 13-year history of the No. 18 Interstate Batteries team. Jimmy Makar served as crew chief for Dale Jarrett (1993-94) and then Labonte (1995-2002) until being promoted to senior vice president of racing operations for JGR.

Michael "Fatback" McSwain served as crew chief for the 2003 season and 18 races of the 2004 season when Brandon Thomas took over as interim crew chief for the final 18 races of the season. Thomas will continue with JGR in the engineering department.