Ganassi swaps crew chiefs for Montoya, Sorenson

In hopes of turning around a season of struggles before it's too late, Chip Ganassi Racing announced a crew chief swap between Juan Montoya and Reed Sorenson.

Donnie Wingo, crew chief for the No. 42 driven by Montoya will shift to the No. 41 of Sorenson beginning with the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 27. Jimmy Elledge, crew chief for Sorenson will swap to Montoya's No. 42 team the same week.

Donnie Wingo

"I really feel that these changes can be instrumental in moving Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates to the next level," team owner Chip Ganassi said in a statement. "I have a lot of respect for both Donnie and Jimmy and the jobs that they do and they both agree that this move can be very beneficial to the entire organization."

The switch will be a big change for Montoya and Sorenson as their entire Cup careers have been with their departing crew chief.

"I have said all along that I believe us to be a championship organization and that Felix and I will do whatever we can to make us better," Ganassi said. "This is toward that end."

The crew chief swap comes less than two weeks after Ganassi openly criticized his team's lackluster performance in 2008, pointing to the struggles of Sorenson and rookie driver Dario Franchitti.

"Frankly, there are 46 cars there and if you can't beat three of them, that's pretty pathetic," Ganassi said after Franchitti failed to make the race in Texas. "I certainly have all the faith in the world in [Franchitti's] driving abilities. I don't think it's that. The fact of the matter is we didn't give him a car that was capable of doing it.

"You can't have guys that are fast and guys that are slow. It doesn't make any sense. These guys, these teams are not talking to each other, they are not working together, they are not using all the resources that are available to them. That's how you end up in a fix like this."

While Montoya has shown consistency this season with seven consecutive top-20s and a points ranking of 17th, Sorenson and Franchitti haven't been as fortunate.

Sorenson started the season with a fifth in the Daytona 500 but has since finished 30th or worse in five of the last seven races and is currently 31st in the points standings. Franchitti started the first five races of the season due to the No. 40 car finishing the '07 season in the top 35 of the owner standings, but he had five consecutive finishes of 32nd or worse dropping him out of the current season's top 35.

Franchitti raced his way in at Martinsville and finished 22nd, he didn't qualify for the race at Texas and he made the field at Phoenix and finished 32nd. Franchitti is currently 39th in the owner standings, 40 points behind 35th-place.