Reiser's promotion opens crew chief door for Bolin

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Chip Bolin has been with the No. 17 team since its inception, dating back to the five races Matt Kenseth ran for the Cup Series organization in 1999. So the 2003 NASCAR champion isn't worried about building a relationship with Bolin, who'll become his crew chief next season when Robbie Reiser becomes Roush Fenway Racing's general manager.

"We've got a lot of depth on the 17 team, and I feel really good about that," Kenseth said Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, site of Sunday's season finale. "We're moving Chip Bolin up to be the crew chief. He's been with us 10 years, 11 years, whatever it's been. He's been there the whole time that me and Robbie have been there. He was our original engineer in that five-race deal in '99 with Roush. He's more than ready, more than capable. I'm not actually worried about it at all."

The Roush Fenway team announced Thursday that Reiser, the only full-time Nextel Cup crew chief that Kenseth has ever had, will move up to general manager in 2008. He'll succeed Max Jones, who will become co-owner and general manager of the Yates Racing end of the seven-car Roush-Yates alliance. Reiser's move will break up what had been one of NASCAR's longest-running driver-crew chief relationships, which has thus far netted 15 victories, the 2000 rookie of the year award, and the 2003 series title.

But Kenseth and Reiser go back much further than that. They're old buddies from their Wisconsin short-track days, where Kenseth drove for Reiser. Kenseth was driving for a Reiser-owned Busch team when they both landed gigs with Roush.

"Robbie and I have been really good friends for a really long time," Kenseth said. "We've worked together for 11 or 12 years. He knows, and plus I've told him every year, that I'll support whatever decision he makes. No matter what, we'll be friends. I'll support whatever he does. He's done a lot for my career, and we've had a lot of fun racing together, and we're still going to work closely together. He knows he has my support no matter what he does. He's got to do what's best for him and his family, and what he feels most comfortable doing."

Bolin, the engineer on the No. 17 team, is a 33-year-old native of North, S.C., who earned a mechanical engineering degree at Clemson. He served as Kenseth's interim crew chief for the first four races of this season, while Reiser was suspended for violations discovered after pole qualifying for the Daytona 500. The No. 17 car finished fourth or better in three of those events, including a victory at California Speedway -- Kenseth's lone win of the year.

Reiser declined comment Friday, and is scheduled to speak to the media Saturday. But former Roush drivers lauded the move, which had been an option for Reiser for several years.

"He's been the leading candidate at Roush for a long time to be the one who steps up and runs the company from a competition standpoint," said Jeff Burton, who drove for Roush from 1996-2004. "I think that's going to help Roush racing. Robbie is very well-thought of, he's a very smart person, a hard worker, dedicated, very organized. He will overall benefit the Roush organization in a great way. It's my opinion that that's a move that should have been made four or five years ago, which possibly would have hurt the 17 [car]. It's hard to take away from the 17 and Matt, but overall I think the company will be much stronger."

It's a move Burton wishes Roush had made while he was still with the team. Burton won 17 races for owner Jack Roush before moving to Richard Childress Racing.

"It's very hard to find somebody of Robbie's caliber," he said. "If I were at Roush, I'd be standing up applauding really loud. It's something that I wanted to see happen when I was at Roush. It was hard to make that happen, because you couldn't take away from what the 17 was doing. But Robbie Reiser can step into any Cup organization and help them be better, there's no doubt about that in my mind. It's very hard to find someone who has all the qualities Robbie has. I think Roush has made an extremely good move."

Mark Martin, who drove Roush's flagship No. 6 car for nearly two decades, said he had been urging Roush to move Reiser into management for the past three years. Why?

"Because he's a racer," Martin said. "And I think a racer like Robbie will do well in a general manager role, especially when he has his fingers in the competition side of it. I think Robbie's role will be a lot more competition than your average general manager, where it's more of the business. That's the way it's structured at Roush Racing. I just see him being sort of a little bit of a competition director as well as a general manager. I see it more like that. In my eyes, that's what I envision there."

Even Kenseth, who loses his crew chief in the move, believes there will be a long-term benefit.

"I feel good about him being promoted," he said. "I think from an organization standpoint, it's going to be really good for Roush Fenway Racing, which is going to be good for the 17 team in the long haul. I know the company's been kind of interested in doing it the last few years, but we've enjoyed working together and doing this for a long time, too. I think overall it will make the company stronger."