■ 17 December 2008 | 2:58 PM
Kenseth gets a new crew chief
Roush Fenway Racing announced Wednesday that Drew Blickensderfer, whose star has been rising, will be Kenseth's crew chief in Cup this upcoming season. Blickensderfer replaces Chip Bolin, the team's engineer who moved to crew chief for last year. Bolin returns to his role as engineer.
The move isn't surprising or shouldn't be. While Kenseth made the Chase for the fifth consecutive year -- only Jimmie Johnson has accomplished the same feat -- Kenseth just wasn't competitive. He went winless for the first time since 2001. Kenseth's nine top-fives were his fewest since 2004. While Kenseth ranked in the top 10 in laps led, nearly two-thirds of the 604 laps he led last year came at the 1.5-mile speedways where the Roush cars were strongest. In other words, Kenseth showed minimal strength on the other types of tracks. While you have to be good on the 1.5-mile speedways to win a title, you still can't be average on the other tracks. In the 6 non 1.5-mile races toward the end of the year, Kenseth had top-10s in two of those races. That, as they say, ain't going to cut it.
Thus, Bolin's move back to the engineer role. What's interesting about this is that Roush is going from an engineer in Bolin to a non-engineer in Blickensderfer as crew chief. Three of Roush's five crew chiefs are non-engineers -- Donnie Wingo (Jamie McMurray), Jimmy Fennig (David Ragan) and Blickensderfer. Greg Erwin (Greg Biffle) and Bob Osboren (Carl Edwards) both have engineering backgrounds.
The push for a few years has often been toward crew chiefs with engineering backgrounds. It will be interesting to see how Blickensderfer, who nearly helped Edwards win the Nationwide title this year after a mid-season switch, fares in this environment.
Here's the Roush release:
CONCORD, N.C. (Dec. 17, 2008) – Roush Fenway Racing has named Drew Blickensderfer crew chief for Matt Kenseth’s No. 17 DEWALT Sprint Cup team for the upcoming 2009 season.
“We are really looking forward to Drew coming on board with the No. 17 DEWALT team,” said Kenseth. “Drew brings a great work ethic and high level of enthusiasm to our team. He has been waiting for the opportunity to become a crew chief in the Sprint Cup Series and I know he’ll make the most of it.
“I had the chance to work with Drew for a couple of years in the Nationwide Series and he is one of the hardest working guys in the garage. He has a passion for the sport, and I know he will be a great addition to our No. 17 team.”
Blickensderfer served the past three seasons as a crew chief in Roush Fenway’s highly successful Nationwide Series program. He helped guide Danny O’Quinn to a Raybestos Rookie title in 2006, before teaming with Kenseth in the Nationwide Series for the next year and a half.
The duo earned three victories in the series, before Blickensderfer moved over to Carl Edwards’ No. 60 team midway through the 2008 season. There, he helped guide the Edwards’ team to seven wins in their last 19 races and a second-place finish in the Nationwide Series point standings.
With the addition of Blickensderfer, Chip Bolin – who served as the crew chief on the No. 17 Sprint Cup team in 2008 - will return to his previous post as team engineer, where he was instrumental in helping guide the team to a Cup championship in 2003.
“Chip has been one of the biggest assets to this team since the beginning,” said Kenseth. “Both as an engineer and crew chief, he has been instrumental in our championship run in 2003 and our making the Chase every year since. We are looking forward to adding Drew to the mix and everyone on this No. 17 DEWALT team is committed to working together and to running up front next season.”
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