Roush Fenway Racing’s Matt Kenseth gets new crew chief; Todd Parrott replaces Drew Blickensderfer
Drew Blickensderfer won two races with Matt Kenseth last year.
// Jim Fluharty, NASCAR Illustrated
Less than one year after winning his first two races as crew chief for Matt Kenseth, Drew Blickensderfer will no longer guide the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing team, the organization announced Wednesday.
Veteran crew chief Todd Parrott will replace Blickensderfer atop the pit box while Blickensderfer has been reassigned to the Roush Fenway research and development department. The change is effective immediately.
The 46-year-old Parrott, who has been a Cup crew chief since 1995 and has won 28 races, won a Cup title with Dale Jarrett in 1999. He most recently was with Yates Racing as crew chief for Bobby Labonte, but that relationship didn’t last the full 2009 season.
Blickensderfer had replaced Chip Bolin as crew chief for Kenseth following the 2008 season. Kenseth won last year’s Daytona 500 and the first two races of 2009 but struggled the rest of the season and failed to make the Chase For The Sprint Cup for the first time in his career.
Kenseth, the 2003 Cup champion, had worked with long-time crew chief Robbie Reiser until 2008, when Reiser became Roush’s director of competition.
Kenseth finished eighth in the season-opening Daytona 500.
