The team won 12 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points races while Steve Addington was crew chief for Kyle Busch. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“I have not spoken [to him],” Addington said. “I wanted to come down here and do this race and let Dave get situated and get caught up where the cars are for [upcoming races at] Texas and Phoenix. I’m a bigger man than that. I can come down here and do this race for Joe Gibbs Racing and the 18 team, and we’ll see how it plays out.”

Addington said he was surprised by the decision Monday.

“We had talked about some changes on the team, and we were trying to get to the end of the season,” Addington said. “We talked about some changes we were going to make. It surprised me it came when it did. That’s the decision Joe Gibbs Racing made, and that’s what I’m good with and I’m going to still be an employee of the organization.

“I told them that I’d explore all my options that are available. I think I have earned a lot of respect in this garage area and I have a lot of phone calls this week and a lot of support in this garage area.”

Addington will be at Texas Motor Speedway next week to help with the fourth Joe Gibbs Racing Sprint Cup car, but not as the crew chief, and he plans to be at the final two races as well. JGR has considered adding a fourth full-time team in the future.

“You’ve got to look at everything,” said Addington, who spent much of his career in the Nationwide Series, including one season with JGR before moving into a Cup role. “I’m going to look at everything. I didn’t ask to be put in this position, so I’m going to look and see what’s best for Steve Addington’s future. I could go back to the Nationwide Series and do some races over there and chill out for a while.”

Among those looking for crew chiefs are Penske Racing’s Kurt Busch and possibly Hendrick Motorsports’ Dale Earnhardt Jr., and while he has had some phone calls, Addington said Friday morning that he hadn’t heard anything from anybody high up at Hendrick Motorsports. He wouldn’t comment on who has contacted him.

“There’s a lot of unanswered questions of where I’m going with the organization to whether I look at my options outside the organization,” Addington said. “[President] J.D. and [owner] Joe [Gibbs] will be the first ones to know. If I have offers and there’s something that is very appealing to me that I feel like I can go and make the difference in, I told them straight up that they would be the first ones that I talked to. … There’s a lot there [at Hendrick], but I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to anybody on what the situation is over there. There are a lot of things that are appealing and a lot of interesting phone calls this week is all I can say.”

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