Crew chief Terry Wooten was released from the #14 A.J. Foyt/Conseco team after the team failed to qualify at Martinsville. Foyt and general manager Waddell Wilson will serve in the crew chief’s role this weekend at Talladega. The team is looking to hire a crew chief next week(Roanoke Times)(4-12-2000) UPDATE: a new crew chief is expected to be hired soon, possibly as early as Monday(Times-Dispatch)(4-16-2000) UPDATE 2 – New #14 Crew Chief: Philippe Lopez has been named the crew chief for the #14 AJ Foyt Conseco team. Lopez was the crew chief for the #41 Hedrick Motorsports team and follows Mast over from there. Other changes in the team are expected to be announced within the next week(RPM2Nite). Hearing the changes may include team manager Waddell Wilson leaving the team and changing to an engine supplier such as Hendrick(4-18-2000) UPDATE 3 – Engines: Crew chief Phillipe Lopez and engine builder David Evans followed driver Rick Mast to A.J. Foyts operation(Times-Dispatch), well it’s not Hendrick engines, but a new head engine builder for the team(4-25-2000) UPDATE 4: Foyt finished his housecleaning by releasing Waddell Wilson as general manager of the #14 team and bringing nephew Tommy LaMance on board. LaMance has been with Foyt since 1994 when he served as team manager with A.J. Foyt Enterprises. Foyt also hired engine builder David Evans away from Hedrick Motorsports(#41), along with much of his engine crew(SpeedVision) AND current engine builder Greg Wilson(Waddell’s son) remains to work with Evans and several of Evans’ other co-workers have joined him at Foyt’s, from NASCAR Online and another story at TNN(4-26-2000)
