NASCAR: Driver-crew chief combos set rare trend at Martinsville

The top four finishers in Wednesday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway are all working with new crew chiefs in the 2020 season.

Chase Elliott finished Wednesday night’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway as the top Hendrick Motorsports driver, the top Chevrolet driver, and the top driver who is working with the same crew chief (Alan Gustafson) this year as he did last year.

And he finished in fifth place.

The top four drivers from Wednesday night’s 500-lap race around the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) oval in Ridgeway, Virginia are all working with new crew chiefs this season, which is quite a rare trend for a single race.

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Race winner Martin Truex Jr. and his #19 team at Joe Gibbs Racing are working with James Small after Cole Pearn made the decision to leave NASCAR following the 2019 season. This win was Truex’s first of the season, and it was the first victory of Small’s career as a crew chief.

The next three drivers were all Team Penske drivers, and Roger Penske’s organization made a huge crew chief shuffle between the 2019 and 2020 seasons after none of their three drivers qualified for last year’s Championship 4, marking the team’s first season without placing a driver in the Championship 4 since 2015.

Last year, Ryan Blaney and his #12 team worked with Jeremy Bullins, Brad Keselowski and his #2 team worked with Paul Wolfe and Joey Logano and his #22 team worked with Todd Gordon. Blaney now works with Gordon while Keselowski now works with Bullins and Logano now works with Wolfe.

Blaney finished in second place on Wednesday night, tying the season-high result he set in the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway back in mid-February, while Keselowski finished in third and Logano finished in fourth.

Through the first 11 races of the season, there have been five victories earned by new driver/crew chief combinations.

in addition to Truex’s victory, Keselowski and Logano have each won two races this season, with Keselowski winning at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway in May and Logano winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in February and Phoenix Raceway in March.

Asked about this trend after the race by NBC Sports’ Dustin Long, Keselowski had an interesting answer.

“That’s a great stat. I didn’t think about that,” he said. “I don’t know why it worked out that way. Maybe that’s a coincidence or trying to tell us something. Generally that doesn’t seem like a coincidence. I would like to think we would have been better if we had more races together. I think that about the fall race. What do I know?”

While uncommon, the top four finishers of a single race all being with new crew chiefs actually almost happened earlier this year. Three of the top four driver/crew chief combinations at Las Vegas Motor Speedway were new, and the one that wasn’t featured a driver and crew chief who swapped teams together over the offseason.

As mentioned, Logano won that race. Wood Brothers Racing’s Matt DiBenedetto finished in second place, and his crew chief is Greg Erwin. Last year, he drove for Leavine Family Racing and worked with crew chief Mike Wheeler.

JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished in third place in that race and Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon finished in fourth.

Stenhouse competed for Roush Fenway Racing last year, but crew chief Brian Pattie came with him to JTG Daugherty Racing. Dillon, meanwhile, worked with crew chief Danny Stockman Jr. last year, and he works with crew chief Justin Alexander now.

Only one other race so far this season has featured the top two finishers working with new crew chiefs. That race was contested at Bristol Motor Speedway. As mentioned, Keselowski won that race. It was Stewart-Haas Racing’s Clint Bowyer who finished in second place.

Bowyer worked with crew chief Mike Bugarewicz last year, but his #14 team and Aric Almirola’s #10 team swapped crew chiefs after the 2019 season. Bowyer’s new crew chief is Johnny Klausmeier.

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The next race on the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is scheduled to take place this Sunday, June 14 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. This race, the Dixie Vodka 400, is set to be broadcast live on Fox beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET.

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