CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Kyle Busch will have a new crew chief after this weekend’s race at Talladega Superspeedway, with Joe Gibbs Racing replacing Steve Addington on Tuesday after a season that fell far short of expectations.
Busch fell eight points shy of claiming a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship because of an inconsistent “regular season.” Although he had four wins at the Chase cutoff, he also had 12 finishes outside the top 20.
Addington, who guided Busch to 12 victories in 68 races, will crew chief Sunday’s race at Talladega and then be replaced by Dave Rogers. A Nationwide Series crew chief for JGR, Rogers will call the final three races of this season for Busch as preparation for 2010.
“We evaluate all of our teams on an ongoing basis and believe this is a change that will make the 18 team stronger as we prepare for next season,” said JGR president J.D. Gibbs.
Addington, who spent the past five season as crew chief of the No. 18, will be reassigned to a different role at JGR.
“We think highly of Steve and the job he has done and we look forward to him remaining a part of the JGR family,” Gibbs said.
The crew chief change comes after consecutive top-10 finishes for Busch, including his fourth-place run at Martinsville on Sunday. It was his highest finish since his August win at Bristol.
He’ll now be paired with Rogers, who is in his fourth season as crew chief for JGR’s No. 20 Nationwide car. He guided that team to JGR’s first owner’s championship in NASCAR’s second-tier series last season by guiding four different drivers to nine wins and 26 top-10 finishes.
Rogers joined JGR in 1998 and spent six seasons working for crew chief Greg Zipadelli on Tony Stewart’s team. Rogers was part of Stewart’s 2002 championship crew.
“Dave has proven himself a talented crew chief and we think he will work well with Kyle,” Gibbs said. “We hope that by making the move following this weekend’s race at Talladega they can use the final three weeks of this season to begin working on communication and setups for the 2010 season.”
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