CONCORD, N.C. — NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Paul Menard hopes this week’s crew chief change for his No. 27 Richard Childress Racing team can provide a “spark” as the team battles to get into this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field.
With only six races remaining before the start of the Chase, RCR officials announced Monday that veteran Danny Stockman has assumed the crew chief duties, replacing Justin Alexander.
Stockman’s first race with the team will be this weekend’s Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono Raceway.
Alexander had been Menard’s crew chief since joining the team with five races remaining in the 2014 season.
“Justin is a great guy and extremely smart,” Menard told NASCAR.com Tuesday, adding that he expects his former crew chief to “remain within RCR in some role.”
“The biggest thing is we just haven’t run very good this year. We felt we had to do something to try and spark some results.”
Menard, who is closing in on his 350th career start in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, qualified for the Chase last season and finished a career-best 14th. But he’s yet to earn a top-five finish this year, has only two-top 10s and sits 23rd in points.
He was 13th in points after 20 races last season, and 15th at this time two years ago.
The 16-team Chase field consist of drivers inside the top-30 in points that have one or more wins; if fewer than 16 drivers have won through this year’s cutoff race at Richmond International Raceway in September, those 16th or higher in points without a win or wins will be awarded any remaining available spots in the field.
Thus far, 11 drivers have one or more wins, meaning only five spots are currently available via points. Menard trails Kyle Larson by 75 points for the final spot in the Chase Grid.
“At this point, we have to win a race to get in the Chase,” Menard said. “We’re going to shake things up and try to make that happen.”
Stockman guided Austin Dillon to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship in 2011 and the XFINITY Series championship in ’13 at RCR.
He also served as crew chief for Menard for a victory at Road America in the XFINITY Series last year.
This season, he has overseen the No. 2 XFINITY Series team for RCR, which has featured drivers Dillon, Menard and Ben Kennedy.
Gil Martin, RCR XFINITY Series director, will fill Stockton’s role.
Menard is coming off a 10th-place finish this past weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he scored his lone Sprint Cup victory in 2011.
“Danny has had a lot of success in the Truck and XFINITY Series,” Menard said. “We’re trying to get a spark for the team. We’re consistently in the top 20, top 15 but we just haven’t knocked out those top-10 and top-five finishes this season.”
In addition to Menard, RCR also fields Sprint Cup entries for drivers Dillon and Ryan Newman.
Full-time XFINITY Series teams for the organization feature drivers Ty Dillon, Brandon Jones and Brendan Gaughan, as well as the fourth now spearheaded by Martin.