Organization also named Eddie Pardue as crew chief for Cale Conley
Mike Bliss will be back behind the wheel for TriStar Motorsports in the NASCAR XFINITY Series in 2015, the team announced on Friday.
The 2015 campaign will mark Bliss' fifth season in the XFINITY Series together. Paul Clapprood will return to serve as the crew chief for Bliss. In the past four seasons with TriStar, Bliss has recorded five top-10 finishes.
TriStar also announced that Eddie Pardue will serve as the crew chief for Cale Conley and the No. 14 Toyota Camry team. Last season, Pardue served as the competition director for TriStar Motorsports. Pardue has served as a crew chief in the XFINITY Series before, working with Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Jason Leffler and several other drivers. In 280 XFINITY Series races, Pardue has been atop the pit box for three wins. He also has crew chief experience in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (one race) and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (22 races).
In other announcements, TriStar also said Bruce Cook will serve as the crew chief for Blake Koch in the No. 8 car. Last year, Cook served as the crew chief for nine races with the No. 80 team in the XFINITY Series. In those races, he served as the crew chief for Alex Bowman (one race), Ross Chastain (five races) and Johnny Sauter (three races) in 2014. Before that, Cook served as the crew chief for Ron Hornaday Jr. in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for the 2013 season. He has one victory in his career in XFINITY competition, overseeing Tony Stewart's win in the 2011 season opener at Daytona International Speedway in what was then called the Nationwide Series.
Greg Connor will be back as the crew chief for the No. 44 team. Connor has been with the organization since 2013. A driver and sponsor announcement will be made in the upcoming weeks, according to a team release.
Wes Ward will now serve as the shop foreman at TriStar as he hangs up his crew chief hat. Ward had over 15 years of crew chief experience with his lone NASCAR national series win coming with Kasey Kahne in the 2003 season finale at Homestead in what is now the XFINITY Series.
Rick Viers has come on board as the team's new general manager, while Keith Barnwell will serve as the new executive vice president.