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Mike Bumgarner sounded cool and collected Wednesday afternoon answering questions about his crew chief debut this season — which happens to come in Saturday’s XFINITY Series season finale championship race.
The JR Motorsports race operations manager will lead driver Elliott Sadler in the championship finale, filling in for Sadler’s regular crew chief, Kevin Meendering, who is suspended for one race after a lug nut violation at Phoenix International Raceway last week.
Officials ruled two lug nuts on Elliott’s No. 1 OneMain Financial Chevrolet were not sufficiently fastened, so Meendering will be sidelined while the veteran Sadler races for his first NASCAR championship. Meendering also was fined $10,000 for the P3-level penalty.
Despite the change in plans, Bumgarner anticipated it will be business as usual for the weekend. He expected to rely on Sadler’s experience and the team’s confidence in taking on his role this weekend.
“I don’t see much of a challenge from my side,” Bumgarner said. “Kevin has a good group of guys, and these guys know what their role is to play. It’s more or less letting these guys do their jobs, and this will all play out.
“It’s just more or less for me, just to guide these guys along and answer any questions and try to do my best at calling a good race and getting Elliott in and off pit road. I think that’s probably the biggest task.
“We’ll see where it all falls, but I feel pretty confident and not really too worried about it. It’s an awesome group of guys, and I think these guys will prevail.”
Bumgarner chuckled a little about team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. joking he would crew chief this one race, saying, “It would have definitely made it easier on me. I would have much rather just went down there and sat back and watched.”
This is not to say that Sadler isn’t intensely motivated to win this title after twice (2011 and 2012) finishing championship runner-up. The 41-year old is a tried-and-true veteran – having won races in all three of NASCAR’s marquee series. And even the complication in this week’s situation is unlikely to sidetrack him or this team.
“And it’s not just Elliott but spotter Brett Griffin, as well,” Bumgarner said about relying on the team’s veteran leadership.
“Those guys have been together for a long time, and that’s what I spoke about earlier — about the importance of getting in and off pit road during the race. He and Brett, they have a good combination as far as speaking and talking together, and I think that is going to make it easy, as well.
“Elliott knows what he needs to do with the race car. These guys, they’ve shown on paper or speed charts as the week goes on every week, they progressively get better as the week goes.”
While some may see this situation as a championship curveball, this veteran team and its driver have taken everything in stride. In fact, it may have inspired this group even more.
“One thing we talked about Monday morning is this is definitely motivation,” Bumgarner said. “Any time a team gets down, it just shows you how strong a group of guys we have here, not only with the No. 1 OneMain team but as JR Motorsports as a whole. We all stick behind each other and try to help each other out and make each other stronger.”