Busch among Joe Gibbs Racing drivers with new crew chiefs
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There were many decisions Joe Gibbs Racing‘s leadership had to make when weighing whether to add driver Carl Edwards — and subsequently, a fourth team — to its organization for the 2015 season.
Finding a new crew chief was not one of them.
The team’s familiarity with Adam Stevens essentially ensured that gap had already been filled. Team owner Joe Gibbs and team president J.D. Gibbs saw enough from Stevens in his four years calling NASCAR XFINITY Series races to know he would be a critical part of their plan to expand.
“To be completely honest with you, Joe and J.D. and the company as a whole made it clear to me whenever they went to a fourth team, that I was going to be high on their list,” Stevens said last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour presented by Technocom. “And that was a long time ago. I don’t even know for sure when the deals got done, but I was aware when that situation came up (of expanding to four teams) that it was going to be something they asked me to do.”
The results back up that trust, particularly when Stevens worked with Kyle Busch over the past two seasons. In 26 XFINITY Series races last year, Busch had seven wins and 25 top-fives. His average finish was 2.8.
The pair had 52 total races XFINITY Series races together, with the following results: 19 wins, 46 top-fives and 47 top-10s. Snapping off top-five after top-five, the two made it look easy, although Stevens said that was hardly the case.
“I think if you were there with us every weekend, you’d have a different opinion,” Stevens said. “You know, operating with Joe Gibbs equipment with Kyle Busch in the XFINITY Series, the only acceptable outcome is a trophy. No one would tell you that’s the case on the Cup side. The competition is too steep, too many people can win a race on any given weekend.
“Its difficult to be at the track and nothing’s good enough but a checkered flag, to have to carry that with you. Then to come up to the Cup side, there’s levels of success I guess. At the end of the day, you’re expected to win, but you’re not expected to win every time. So it’s going to be a little different.”
With Stevens getting the promotion to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, it allowed JGR to make two additional crew chief swaps. Darian Grubb, who led the No. 11 team for three years, moves to the newly formed No. 19 team of Edwards.
Dave Rogers, who had helmed Kyle Busch‘s No. 18 team full time since 2010, slid over to Hamlin’s team to cover for the Grubb move and to make room for Stevens.
“We’re making some changes, and we believe we’re putting people in the right places,” Joe Gibbs said. “And the great thing about our sport is that we’re going to find out if it works.”
Busch and Rogers had a relationship that produced 13 wins and was mostly harmonious, with the cool-headed crew chief serving as the foil to the driver’s occasional tempestuous nature.
The 2014 season produced a handful of moments between the two, though, that were not idyllic. A blowup at Bristol Motor Speedway during the Irwin Tools Night Race saw Rogers rip Busch over the headset, although he insisted after the race there were no issues between the two.
Stevens and Busch may not have had a heated, public exchange over the headset during the past two years, but the crew chief knows the possibility of such an incident — with the stakes so high — comes with the territory.
“You know, it’s part of it,” Stevens said. “The driver-crew chief communication is 30 percent of the battle. I feel like we have a good foundation to build off of there, but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have fast cars and make good decisions. The other two pieces of it are still yet to be determined.”