Penske Racing's Kurt Busch says crew chief search ongoing, Steve Addington in the mix
Penske Racing's Kurt Busch says that he is involved in the search for his 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup crew chief. // Jeff Velte, NASCAR Scene
LAS VEGAS – Kyle Busch won 12 races in less than two seasons with Steve Addington as his NASCAR Sprint Cup crew chief. Older brother Kurt Busch might get a chance to do the same.
Kurt Busch confirmed Thursday that Addington is “in the mix” to replace Pat Tryson as crew chief for Busch’s No. 2 Penske Racing team.
Addington was replaced as Kyle Busch’s crew chief at Joe Gibbs Racing late in the 2009 season, and Kurt Busch said Thursday that he called JGR President J.D. Gibbs to get permission to talk to Addington.
Kurt Busch didn’t say Addington was a favorite for the job and indicated there are two or three others in the running. Another he confirmed is in the mix is Penske team engineer Dave Winston.
“We’ve talked with a few guys on the outside, we have an internal guy that we want to bump up,” Busch said. “It’s still a work in progress. We haven’t decided. I was hoping to have a decision and an announcement this week. But we won’t have that.”
Tryson is moving to Michael Waltrip Racing for 2010, and officials at Penske knew he was leaving before the Chase For The Sprint Cup started.
Still, Penske has yet to find a replacement.
“There’s still somebody out there I’d like to talk to,” Busch said. “I haven’t found, necessarily, the guy you’d want to jump on top of and go to.”
Busch said he was one of four involved in making the decision, with the other three being team owner Roger Penske, team president Tim Cindric and Vice President of Operations Michael Nelson. Busch said he believes the other three would listen to his opinion if he felt strongly about a certain candidate.
As for what qualities Busch was looking for, he said, “Leadership is obviously the biggest one.
“You need to have a guy who fits into the Penske mold, as far as an engineering background, but yet I like a car guy, somebody that knows how to turn the wrenches and throws things in and out of the car right off his hip,” Busch said.
