Jack Roush hopes Nationwide crew-chief swap improves chemistry
Roush Fenway Racing co-owner Jack Roush says he hopes the recent crew-chief swap with his NASCAR Nationwide Series teams pays dividends. // Jim Fluharty, NASCAR Scene
Related story: Roush Fenway Racing swaps Nationwide crew chiefs for Carl Edwards, David Ragan
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Roush Fenway Racing co-owner Jack Roush indicated he could make more changes to the crew-chief lineup of his NASCAR Nationwide Series teams if he doesn’t like the way the swap between the No. 60 and No. 6 teams works.
Carl Edwards, who won the championship in 2007, will have a new crew chief for the final three races of the season as Mike Kelley moves from the No. 6 team to the No. 60 of Edwards. The No. 60 crew chief, Dan Stillman, is going to guide the No. 6 team.
Edwards is second in the standings but 215 points behind leader Kyle Busch with three races left in the season.
“Mike Kelley and Dan Stillman have done a great job, but we’re looking for something just even a little better, so we think both the programs will be energized by having this look,” Roush said. “We think that there’s a very good opportunity to get the chemistry improved by the drivers and the crew chiefs.
“With three races left, we’ll do this and if it doesn’t work out to the management’s satisfaction … to look like it’s going to be an improvement for next year, we’ll do something else by the start of the year or we’ll go back to what we had. Everything is on the table.”
Roush Fenway teams have nine victories in the series this year.
“Dan has done a great job,” Edwards said. “We’re seeing if he can make that 6 team, with the younger drivers [Erik Darnell and David Ragan], better and seeing if Mike Kelley can come over here and lend something to our team to make it better.
“But the thinking of doing it now is that you get to try it. There’s no better test session than the real world and there’s a lot of teams in position to do that.”
