Philippe Lopez, a veteran crew chief who worked with the #07 Richard Childress-Dave Blaney team until last month when Childress decided to bring in Scott Miller to run that operation, has apparently moved to the new Roger Staubach-Troy Aikman team, which has been searching for sponsorship [Jayski Note: actually the team announced Texas Instruments as their sponsor on Aug 16th] and a driver for a planned Nextel Cup effort in 2006.(Winston Salem Journal)(9-19-2005)
UPDATEL Philippe Lopez, who was one of the first persons that the late Dale Earnhardt hired when he decided DEI should go Cup racing in 1998, has been named crew chief for the new Hall of Fame Racing operation. Hall of Fame partners Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman and Bill Saunders have given Lopez the job of putting together the Texas Instruments team that will compete on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series in 2006. “My first priority is to get the shop up and running,” says Lopez, who was working in the research and development department at Richard Childress Racing before taking the job with Hall of Fame Racing. “We are working very closely with Joe Gibbs Racing,” adds Lopez. âThat will give us a great advantage right from the start. Jimmy Makar (General Manager at Gibbs) has already been a big help in getting the ball rolling. “You can’t put a price on what they will be bringing to the table as this team gets ready to go Nextel Cup racing. We are quickly getting the shop up and running, sourcing the equipment that we need and hiring the people that we want.” Lopez says the team’s relationship with Joe Gibbs Racing means he does not have to focus on building race cars “any time soon” as JGR will provide the team with Chevrolet Monte Carlos and engines as well as the technology needed to be competitive in the Nextel Cup Series.
Hall of Fame Racing also announced the hiring of Len Batycki as vice president of marketing and John Fuller as comptroller. Batycki has worked in motorsports for more than 15 years. He joined North Carolina Motor Speedway in 1990, working there for almost six years, the last two as vice president of marketing. He moved to Richard Childress Racing in 1996 as vice president of business development. Batycki left RCR in 2002. Shortly afterwards, he was named senior vice president/motorsports group for Ogilvy PR Worldwide. In July 2004, he joined Doug Herbert Performance Parts as executive vice president and general manger. Fuller comes to Hall of Fame Racing from ppc racing. Fuller graduated from Clemson University in 1996 with a degree in accounting. He earned his CPA while working for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Fuller joined ppc racing in 1999. Hall of Fame Racing’s shop is located on Twin Lakes Parkway just off I-77.(PR)(9-27-2005)
