Roush Racing continues crew chief shake-up
By Mark Ashenfelter
Friday, November 10, 2006
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AVONDALE, Ariz. - In a series of moves at Roush Racing, Jimmy Fennig will serve as rookie David Ragan's Nextel Cup Series crew chief next season, with Pat Tryson moving over to lead Greg Biffle's team.
Doug Richert, Biffle's current crew chief, said Friday that he's not yet sure what he'll be doing next season.
Roush Racing announced earlier this week that Bob Osborne was returning to Carl Edwards' team, starting with this weekend's race at Phoenix International Raceway. Wally Brown, who will be leaving the organization for a job with Joe Gibbs Racing after the season, is serving as Jamie McMurray's crew chief the next two races.
Fennig opened the year as McMurray's crew chief but took a role overseeing Roush's Busch Series program. Jack Roush, though, wants Fennig back in Cup and offered him the chance to work either with Ragan or one of the team's veteran drivers.
"Jimmy likes working with young people with enthusiasm," Roush said. "I guess he feels that he can have more of an impact on molding personality and the approach of a young driver than maybe he would one that's already established. ... He decided he would rather have a rookie program and had worked with David [with the Busch Series team] and is real excited about David and thought he could really help him.
"That was Jimmy's decision as much as mine. All I did was raise the question and say, 'Hey, we have this available. ... Would you rather have a more established driver or would you rather have David Ragan?'"
Roush decided reuniting Osborne and Edwards was a natural decision once Brown elected to move on.
"I did not make this change in order to correct a problem that existed between Wally and Carl," Roush said. "Wally was at the end of his contract, and he made a decision that he wanted to do something else that didn't involve his having the responsibilities of being a crew chief.
"When I looked at what is the next best thing that you can do with Carl, there was no problem when we made our move from Bob Osborne being his crew chief to Wally being his crew chief back in the spring. The thing I was trying to do at that time was to [bolster McMurray's team]. I thought the move to Wally was going to be seamless, and I still feel that it was."
Osborne led Edwards to the title-determining Chase For The Nextel Cup in 2005 and is looking forward to working with the driver again.
"It was something the company had to do earlier in the year. It's not necessarily what everybody wanted 100 percent, but we understood it needed to happen," Osborne said of the change. "Now that we're looking toward next year, it's good to be back here and see a lot of old faces and a lot of guys I was used to working with. Wally did a great job, whether I'll do a better job than Wally or not is still to see. But I'm happy to be back."
Richert offered no specifics about his future.
"Not real sure," he said. "There's a lot of stuff going on, but nothing certain."
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Carl Edwards
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