Tally another crew chief on the board as Joe Gibbs Racing announced on
\nTuesday that Jimmy Makar will step down as crew chief and take over the role as
\nteam manager in 2003. Makar held crew chief duties on the #18 for 11 years.<\/p>\n
On Monday Tommy Baldwin parted ways with Bill Davis Racing, effective
\nimmediately. The crew chief fury this week alone was shock enough following the
\nMakar and Baldwin announcements. But now is the time to officially begin taking
\nnotes as I attempt to give a quick rundown as to who has gone where so far this
\nseason.<\/p>\n
With Baldwin’s departure as Ward Burton’s crew chief on the 22 Dodge, the
\ndoor was left wide open for Frank Stoddard to step in. Stoddard recently left
\nRoush Racing and his job as crew chief on Ward’s brother, Jeff’s #99 Ford.<\/p>\n
The announcement from BDR comes on the heels of DEI’s official announcement
\nthis past week that Tony Gibson will be leaving his car chief duties at Hendrick
\nMotorsports to become Steve Park’s crew chief on his #1 Chevy. Gibson will be
\nfilling the void left by Paul Andrew who took over Stoddard’s position at Roush.<\/p>\n
Yet another recent crew chief change within the Hendrick organization came at
\nthe beginning of September when Peter Sospenzo took over duties on the 25.
\nSospenzo replaced Brian Pattie.<\/p>\n
In June RCR decided to swap crew chiefs on the 29 and 31 crews, handing Kevin
\nHamlin to Robby Gordon’s 31 team while Gil Martin was sent to work on Kevin
\nHarvick’s 29.<\/p>\n
If you were taking notes, chances are they look like you tried playing
\nconnect-the-dots in the dark.<\/p>\n
The frequent changing of crew chiefs this season is something that normally
\ntakes place during the off-season. But, as is the case with driver’s swapping
\nrides, the ever constant demand to win is top priority in the sponsor driven
\nsport.<\/p>\n
Baldwin’s most notable win with the 22 team came in the season opener Daytona
\n500, the most prestigious win of them all. The waiting game is now on to see
\nwhere Baldwin will end up.<\/p>\n
As for Makar, he coached Bobby Labonte to the 2000 Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tally another crew chief on the board as Joe Gibbs Racing announced on Tuesday that Jimmy Makar will step down as crew chief and take over the role as team manager in 2003. Makar held crew chief duties on the #18 for 11 years. On Monday Tommy Baldwin parted ways with Bill Davis Racing, effective […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}