JGR announced this week that #20 Crew Chief Dave Rogers will be taking over the duties as crew chief for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series No. 18 Toyota Starting with November 8 race at Texas Motor Speedway. This means the #20 NASCAR Nationwide Series team will be getting a new crew chief. One thing I’m confident in is whoever gets this opportunity will be up to the task.
Here’s JGR’s Official Release:
Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) announces today that Dave Rogers will be assuming the duties as crew chief for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series No. 18 Toyota starting with the November 8 race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Steve Addington, who has served as crew chief for the No. 18 team the previous five seasons will be reassigned to a position within JGR following this weekend’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Rogers is currently in his fourth season as crew chief on the No. 20 NASCAR Nationwide Series entry for JGR. He led the team to JGR’s first Nationwide Series Owner’s Championship in 2008 amassing nine victories, six poles, 16 top-five finishes and 26 top-10 finishes despite utilizing four different drivers over the course of the season. The team has captured another five wins thus far this season under Rogers’ leadership. He first joined JGR in 1998 and spent six seasons from 1999 to 2004 working under Greg Zipadelli with the No. 20 team, including the team’s 2002 Championship season.
When the No. 11 car driven by Jason Leffler was introduced in 2005 as JGR’s third NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team, Rogers was tabbed as crew chief. Mike Ford would later step into that role midway through the 2005 season and Rogers moved back into the JGR engineering department. Prior to the 2006 season Rogers would move over to JGR’s Nationwide Series program and has since guided the team to 20 victories over the past four seasons.
“We evaluate all of our teams on an ongoing basis and believe this is a change that will make the 18 team stronger as we prepare for next season,” said J.D. Gibbs, president of JGR. “We think highly of Steve and the job he has done and we look forward to him remaining a part of the JGR family.
“Dave has proven himself a talented crew chief and we think he will work well with Kyle. We hope that by making the move following this weekend’s race at Talladega they can use the final three weeks of this season to begin working on communication and setups for the 2010 season.”
Check out this video interview produced by Joe Gibbs Racing of Matt answering fan submitted questions. The video was shot about a week prior to Matt’s first Nationwide start in Memphis.
It was a strong debut weekend for Matt DiBenedetto in the #20 Pizza Ranch car. Here’s what Matt had to say about the two practice sessions on Friday. ”When I first came out, the main goal was to go out there and take it easy. No need to go out there and take any chances. So I just eased it up on speed. I’m just being calm with it all. The first practice was mostly me getting comfortable with the car and everything and the race track because I’ve never seen this place before. After that, second practice (I) went out there and felt comfortable and made some big gains on the car,” said DiBenedetto. DiBenedetto ripped off the 5th fastest time during “happy hour.”
Then in qualifying Matt came out fast earning the P4 spot. During the first 50 plus laps of the race Matt held the #20 Pizza Ranch car in the top 5 and for just a moment was running in 1st when he overtook the veteran Mike Bliss (though he won’t get credited for leading a lap.) Then under yellow around lap 60, Matt came in for his first pit stop. Unfortunately, Matt sustained front right damage when pulling the car out of the pit and collided with charging double-duty driver David Reutimann. The damage and subsequent stops to fix the damage dropped Matt way back in the pack around p34. Then to make matters worse, Matt had to drop down to the grass in turn 1 to avoid a crash in front of him. Even with some good driving Matt still picked up some damage. The ailing #20 car led to Matt going a lap down to the leaders. After some needed adjustments to the car, Matt dug hard to get in position to get the “Lucky Dog” free pass to get back on the lead lap.
Then the race got really exciting. Crew chief Dave Rogers gave his rookie the following advice, “Don’t think about how badly you can finish, think about how you’re going to get around these guys in front of you.” Matt then went on an amazing surge going from p22 all the way up to p6. Then unfortunately there were 4 cautions in the last 20 laps which set up a bad situation for Matt. About the 2nd lap into a restart, Brad Keselowski sput out Carl Edwards a few car lengths in front of Matt. Matt let off the gas to try and avoid the wreck and got rear-ended by Jason Leffler which sent Matt spinning. NASCAR put Matt at the back of the lead lap cars (16th) for helping bring out the yellow flag (even though Matt didn’t even cause the crash). Matt was able to get 2 spots back and ended the day in 14th place.
It was quite a first run for Matt. He drove great and handled the adversity during the race well. I know Matt can’t wait to get behind the wheel of the #20 Pizza Ranch car again in the Nationwide series in 2010.
The #20 car came out for final practice fast. Matt held in #2 for most of practice until guys started doing mock qualifying runs. I think Matt ended with the 7th fastest time in final practice. And the good news is Matt said he could have gone even faster! Matt also got to do an interview on ESPN after practice. Enjoy some pictures from pit road…
Erik Darnell & Matt DiBenedetto heading down the back stretch.
View from on top of the #20 hauler.
Matt holding his own at #2 on the board.
Crew chief Dave Rogers inspects the car after final practice.
