The #21 Wood Brothers team is in the process of making several personnel changes to their Cup team driven by Elliott Sadler, including the hiring of a new crew chief, which may occur as early as this week. Mike Beam, Sadler’s crew chief November 1998, is expected to leave. Pat Tryson, the crew chief for #16-Kevin Lepage to replace Beam, sources said. The Wood Brothers and Lepage’s car owner, Jack Roush, have a working partnership with Roush Racing producing car chassis for Sadler’s team. The Wood Brothers has already hired Neil Perkins, a former crew chief in BGN and Late Model series, to help in weekly car preparation(That’s Racin’). Hmm..wonder if this means the #16 team is history and Lepage has another gig set up, #4??(10-15-2000) UPDATE Beam to the #75: The #75 Galaxy Motorsports team with driver Wally Dallenbach Jr. announced the acquisition of veteran crew chief/mechanic Mike Beam. Beam has been named to the position of Team Manager and begins his duties starting today. According to team owner/president Darwin Oordt, Beam, 44, will oversee all competition-related issues while working closely with crew chief Newt Moore. The move is intended to provide one of the missing performance ingredients Oordt felt the team was lacking. Beam joins Galaxy after a two-season stint as crew chief with the Wood Brothers. His career began in 1981 at age 24 when he joined Petty Enterprises as a mechanic and was elevated to crew chief that same year. Since then Beam has served as crew chief in the Winston Cup Series for such noted teams as Bahari Racing (1988, 89), Melling Racing (1990), Junior Johnson (1991-95), Bill Elliott (1995-98) and the Woods (1999 2000). Driver Dallenbach agrees the Beam acquisition should make Galaxy a consistent front runner in 2001. Galaxy in 2000 has run a consortium of three rotational primary sponsors consisting of Turner Broadcasting, RotoZip Power Tools and RedCell Batteries(Galaxy Motorsports PR) and The Wood Brothers Racing Team announced today that Mike Beam and the team have mutually agreed to part ways. Eddie Wood, co-car owner of the #21 CITGO Ford, stated, “We hope to have a new crew chief named within the next few weeks.”(Cox Marketing)(10-17-2000)
