hearing that Nick Sandler, former #99 Roush Fenway Racing engineer will be the crew chief for #17-Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in 2015. Former #17 crew chief, Mike Kelley, supposedly sticks with the team as the car chief.(1-6-2015)
UPDATE: Roush Fenway Racing has announced its 2015 crew chief lineup. The lineup features the return of Bob Osborne atop the pit box as the crew chief of Trevor Bayne and the #6 AdvoCare Ford, which makes its return to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Osborne served as a crew chief for Roush Fenway from 2004 until 2012, leading teams to 18 wins, 86 top-five finishes and 142 top-10 finishes, before moving over to assist with the team’s engineering efforts. Greg Biffle’s #16 Ortho Ford will again be headed up by Matt Puccia, who has led Biffle to “Chase’ appearances in each of his three full seasons at the helm. The #17 Fastenal team will be led by Nick Sandler, who spent the last four seasons working as the head engineer for the #99 team under Jimmy Fennig. Mike Kelley, who served as the team’s crew chief last season will make the shift to car chief in 2015. Kelley and Stenhouse Jr. have a long history, with the pair teaming for back-to-back championships in the NASCAR XFINITY Series in 2011 and 2012.
In addition, Roush Fenway has named legendary crew chief Jimmy Fennig as research and development coordinator. Fennig, who most recently served as crew chief on the No. 99 Sprint Cup Team amassed 36 career wins as a crew chief and helped lead the organization to its second NSCS Championship in 2004 and the team’s historic 300th win in the 2012 Daytona 500. He will now play an integral role in the direction of the team’s car builds.
On the NASCAR XFINITY Series front, Phil Gould will lead the #1 One Main Financial team in 2015. Gould previously worked with Brian Scott the last two seasons, guiding the #2 team to a fourth-place finish in the final standings last season. Both Seth Barbour and Scott Graves will return atop the boxes of the #16 and #60 NXS teams. Chad Norris, who served as crew chief for #6 NXS team last season, will sit atop the pit box for Bubba Wallace.(Roush Fenway Racing)(1-6-2015)
