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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Crew Chiefs Flip For Chip
Chip Ganassi Racing became the latest NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team to make a crew chief change this season...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted April 16, 2008   Harrisburg, N.C.
NASCAR fined Reed Sorenson's Crew Chief, Donnie Wingo, for a rule infraction during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Michigan. (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates became the latest NASCAR Sprint Cup team to make a crew chief change this season when it announced that Donnie Wingo and Jimmy Elledge would change roles.

Wingo will move from Juan Pablo Montoya’s No. 42 Dodge Charger to teammate Reed Sorenson’s No. 41 car, while Jimmy Elledge will move from Sorenson’s car to Montoya’s.

The reason for the change is the same as for the spate of other crew chief changes made already this season: performance. In eight NASCAR Sprint Cup races so far this season, the only Ganassi car to finish in the top 10 was Sorenson, who was fifth in the season-opening Daytona 500.

Since then, all three Ganassi cars have been outside the top 10 in every race. Montoya is 17th in Sprint Cup driver points, Sorenson 31st and rookie Dario Franchitti 38th.

“I really feel that these changes can be instrumental in moving Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates to the next level,” team owner Chip Ganassi said in a statement released by the team. “I have a lot of respect for both Donnie and Jimmy and the jobs that they do and they both agree that this move can be very beneficial to the entire organization. I have said all along that I believe us to be a championship organization and that Felix and I will do whatever we can to make us better. This is toward that end.”

Ganassi has been fiercely critical of his Sprint Cup teams in recent weeks for performances he felt have been subpar. But he is far from alone in that regard: Wood Brothers Racing, Hall of Fame Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing and Petty Enterprises all have made in-season crew changes already, and the Sprint Cup schedule has yet to reach the one-quarter mark.

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Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to
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