Monday, September 1, 2014

With Fennig stepping down, Bayne's crew chief likely down to 3 guys

Jimmy Fennig told reporters this weekend that 2014 would be his last season on top of a pit box for Roush Fenway Racing and plans to retire at the end of the season.  So now leaves the question about who will be the crew chief for the 6 car when Trevor Bayne moves up to the Sprint Cup level next season?

I have thought it over and there's likely two choices Roush has in the box to replace Fennig.  Bayne's current crew chiefs from the No. 6 Nationwide Series team Chad Norris and Donnie Wingo who is crew chief of the No. 21 car for the Wood Brothers crew.  Wingo is a very experienced crew chief in the Sprint Cup Series, while Norris has time in both divisions and has had success with Bayne in the Nationwide Series.

However, Roush might take another direction, possibly adding Scott Graves as the crew chief.  Roush likes to have guys with an engineering background on top of the pit box.  Graves has had success in the Nationwide Series this season working with Chris Buescher and they were able to score a win a few weekends ago at Mid-Ohio.  I don't see a big shakeup with the 17 and 16 crew chiefs as this was Stenhouse and Kelley's first years back together in Sprint Cup.

So now it will be a guessing game until RFR makes the announcement for the 6 team, probably coming late October or early November.

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