Blake Harris joins Trackhouse to crew chief No. 97, Shane van Gisbergen in 2027

Trackhouse Racing has Blake Harris to crew chief its No. 97 Chevrolet and driver Shane van Gisbergen in the 2027 NASCAR Cup Series season, the team announced Monday. Harris joins the organization after spending the last four seasons leading the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports outfit with driver Alex Bowman. He replaces Stephen Doran atop the No. 97 pit box after Spire Motorsports announced Doran will crew chief the No. 71 car and driver Michael McDowell in 2027. MORE: Final 2026 standings | 2027 schedule Harris has one win in the NASCAR Cup Series, leading Bowman to Victory Lane on the Chicago Street Course in 2024, a career-best year for Harris as a shot-caller. The No. 48 team scored eight top fives and 17 top 10s that season in addition to a pole-position effort at Bristol Motor Speedway. Before joining Hendrick, Harris served as crew chief of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team with McDowell in 2022, guiding McDowell to 11 top 10s and a 15.8 average finish in 32 races. The 2026 campaign proved challenging for Harris and the No. 48, losing Bowman for four races as he battled vertigo early in the season. Through combined efforts with Bowman, Justin Allgaier and Anthony Alfredo, the No. 48 team ultimately finished 24th in owners' points this season. Bowman finished 26th with four top fives and eight top 10s. Harris now partners with SVG, a three-time V8 Supercars champion and renowned road racer whose transition to full-time NASCAR Cup Series racing took a notable step forward on ovals in 2026. The New Zealand native finished the 2026 regular season just outside The Chase presented by Mobil 1 and earned a career-high six top fives and 10 top 10s in his second full season, improving his average finish of 21.0 in 2025 to 18.9 in 2026. Van Gisbergen won twice in 2026 (Watkins Glen International; Sonoma Raceway), bumping his career total to eight wins, tied for 71st all-time alongside Bowman and Chase Briscoe as well as former driver and current television analyst Kyle Petty. "Feel like we made good strides this year, and it'd be good to get some momentum going," Van Gisbergen said Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. "We started the year pretty average as a team. Middle of the year was average, and I feel like we really sort of turned it around the last couple of months. So hopefully that keeps going." Van Gisbergen finished 17th in the final points standings of 2026, the highest available position outside the 16-driver Chase field.