Crew chief Roy McCauley unsure of future at Penske Racing
HAMPTON, Ga. – Penske Racing crew chief Roy McCauley doesn’t sound so sure about whether he’ll return to Penske’s No. 12 NASCAR Sprint Cup team next season to work with incoming driver Brad Keselowski.
Keselowski, the team announced earlier this week, is leaving his full-time ride with the JR Motorsports Nationwide Series organization at season’s end to replace Stremme in 2010. Keselowski, who is making select Cup starts this season for Phoenix Racing and Hendrick Motorsports, will also run the full 2010 campaign in one of Penske’s Nationwide cars.
McCauley has been the crew chief of the No. 12 Penske Cup team since the start of the 2008 season when he was paired with Ryan Newman and the two went to victory lane in the season-opening Daytona 500.
Newman left for Stewart-Haas Racing in the offseason and was replaced by Stremme, who has yet to score a top-10 in 24 events with McCauley calling the shots.
If McCauley is to remain at his present post with Keselowski, he hasn’t been told by Penske officials.
“We haven’t even sat down and talked,” McCauley said on Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “ ... As far as I know, we’ve just got to keep plugging away here and see what we get to.”
Even if McCauley doesn’t serve as Keselowski’s crew chief, he is glad to see the 25-year-old join the organization. Keselowski has five Nationwide wins in just over two years in that series and earned a Cup victory in just his fifth start in NASCAR’s premier division.
“We’ve very excited to have Brad a part of the Penske family,” McCauley said. “We welcome him with open arms and looking forward to creating a good, Chase-contending run with him and just really glad to have him.”
As for any role McCauley might have had in the hiring of Keselowski, the crew chief demurred on Saturday.
“My job right now is to make sure we get the 12 car as high on the board as we can in every session and as high as we can in the race so we that we have the Penske car running good as we can,” he said. “[Team owner] Roger [Penske] takes care of the big picture.”
Penske’s Kurt Busch, who ranks highest among the organization’s Cup drivers in the standings, was paired with McCauley prior to the crew chief’s move to the No. 12 team and expects McCauley to be paired with Keselowski.
“The way that Roy and I have worked together in the past, I think Roy will work real well with Brad,” Busch said. “ … Roy should be a good fit for Keselowski.”
