Richard Petty Motorsports announces crew chief change effective for Kansas
Sam Hornish Jr. will have a new crew chief on the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford with Kevin “Bono” Manion coming aboard to be the team’s new pit boss.
The move takes effect immediately ahead of Saturday’s SpongeBob SquarePants 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1) at Kansas Speedway.
Manion comes to Richard Petty Motorsports after serving as Alex Bowman‘s crew chief for the No. 7 Tommy Baldwin Racing team for nine races this season. In his career, Manion has been atop the pit box for 328 Sprint Cup races with five victories including wins in the 2010 Daytona 500 and at Indianapolis, Charlotte and Talladega with Jamie McMurray behind the wheel. Manion also guided Martin Truex Jr. to his first career premier series win at Dover in June of 2007. Manion also has 15 wins as a crew chief in what is now known as the NASCAR XFINITY Series.
With Manion departing the No. 7 team, TBR team owner Tommy Baldwin will take over as crew chief for Bowman, starting immediately according to a press release from the team.
“I’m very happy for Bono; we’ve been friends a long time,” Baldwin said Tuesday. “I wish him nothing but the best. Climbing atop the pit box is somewhat of a familiar role for me, and I look forward to working with Alex.”
Drew Blickensderfer, who has been with Richard Petty Motorsports since the end of the 2012 season, was the crew chief for the first 10 races this season with Hornish. Blickensderfer has three wins atop the pit box including the opening two races of the 2009 season (including the 2009 Daytona 500 with Matt Kenseth) but his last victory as a crew chief came in 2011 with David Ragan at the July Daytona race.
Blickensderfer has been offered another position in the organization, according to a release provided by RPM.
“We began the season with changes to the No. 9 race team, most notably with the addition of Sam as our driver,” Sammy Johns, the Petty team’s director of competition said in a release. “We are now looking to give Sam all the tools he needed to be successful. We feel that Kevin will bring some new ideas to help better our performance. We welcome him to the Petty family.”
Hornish is coming off a sixth-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway last weekend, his first top-10 with Richard Petty Motorsports. The 35-year-old is currently 28th in the point standings.