hearing the Justin Allgaier will move up to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to run full time in the #51 Chevy owned by Harry Scott and run for 2014 Rookie of the Year. Been told that Steve Addington will move from the #14 Stewart Haas Racing team and be Allgaiers crew chief. Current #1 crew chief, Kevin Manion will likely move from Earnhardt Ganassi Racing to be the Competition Director at Turner Scott Motorsports.(11-11-2013) UPDATE: Phoenix Racing announced that Steve Addington will serve as competition director for the team and crew chief of the #51 Chevy for the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. The move brings experienced leadership to the team that will compete fulltime in 2014 under owner Harry Scott, Jr. ‘In my opinion Steve is the perfect guy for the job’ said Scott. ‘He is part of the Chevrolet family, the Hendrick family and I feel fortunate that he is now part of our family. I also want to thank Jimmy Elledge for stepping in at a critical time this season and serving as the interim crew chief for the past six races. We look forward to hopefully working with Jimmy again down the road.” ‘I am thrilled to be part of the Phoenix Racing team and working with Harry’ said Addington. ‘Harry has a vision to make this team a championship contender and I am excited to be part of it.” Addington has served as a crew chief in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for ten years and has amassed 20 wins, 66 Top 5s and 105 Top 10s during that time. Scott purchased Phoenix Racing in September of this year from James Finch. Since then a number of drivers have piloted the #51 including Justin Allgaier, Michael McDowell and Kyle Larson. Additional information about the 2014 driver of the #51 Phoenix Racing Chevrolet and its sponsor will be announced at a later date.( Phoenix Racing )(11-21-2013) UPDATE 2: ‘Im kind of scratching my head on that’ Addington told AP. ‘I dont have any hard feelings or anything like that, I just dont have a real good idea of why the decision was made.” Addington knew the performance of the #14 team was not up to par in the early part of the season in fact, all three teams at SHR struggled early but believed the team had turned a corner before Tony Stewarts season-ending Aug. 5 injury in a sprint car crash. ‘It was an option year, and after the accident, I figured wed go on one more year’ Addington said. ‘Its no secret we had our issues early in the season, but after Charlotte, the 600, we really turned things around. We won at Dover, and other than Sonoma, where we were running top-five before a spin, and Kentucky, where we did struggle, wed really turned it around. Then came the accident, and we just dont know what could have come from the rest of the season. So I really dont know what happened there.” Now hell likely be paired with Justin Allgaier at Phoenix Racing. The team did not announce a driver Thursday, but Addington made several references to Allgaier in an interview with AP, and Allgaier drove four races in the #51 after Scott bought the team.( Associated Press )
