With the recent announcement of expanding to a second NASCAR Cup team in 2017, Furniture Row Racing announced that it has hired Chris Gayle as the crew chief for the team’s new entry – the #77 5-hour ENERGY Toyota to be driven by Erik Jones. Gayle, a 17-time winning crew chief to date in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, joins Furniture Row Racing after a 14-year career as an engineer and crew chief with Joe Gibbs Racing. He was promoted from engineer to crew chief at JGR in 2013. Gayle’s first two XFINITY seasons as crew chief were with driver Elliott Sadler. In 2015 he served as the crew chief for the #54 Toyota, working with a number of drivers after Kyle Busch was injured in the season opener at Daytona. He also has worked with multiple drivers this season on the #18 JGR Toyota. Nine of Gayle’s 17 wins in the XFINITY Series have come this season – seven by Kyle Busch and one each by Denny Hamlin and Sam Hornish Jr. Gayle also served as the crew chief when Jones won the 2015 XFINITY race at Chicagoland Speedway. Gayle and his family – wife Brandi and 19-month-old daughter Cora ‘ will move to Denver where he will start working out of the Furniture Row Racing shop following the 2016 campaign. A native of Little Rock, Ark., Gayle attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville for two years before transferring to the University of North Carolina Charlotte, where he graduated in 2002 with a mechanical engineering degree.(Furniture Row Racing)
