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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Kahne To Hendrick, Crew Chief Changes Highlight Offseason
Kasey Kahne will drive the No. 5 Chevrolet of Hendrick Motorsports in 2012...
Bob Pockrass  | http://www.scenedaily.com  |  Posted January 07, 2012   Charlotte, NC
Kasey Kahne sits in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet during NASCAR's Electronic Fuel Injection testing at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Oct. 17. (Photo: Getty Images)
After a busy offseason, most of the big driver and team moves for 2012 are finally over.

Amazingly, the moves started in April 2010 and didn’t end until January 2012.

Here’s a look at 15 offseason moves that will produce the most intrigue, and perhaps success, in 2012:

1. Kasey Kahne/Kenny Francis to Hendrick

This one was announced in April 2010 and required Kahne and Francis to spend 2011 at Red Bull Racing before replacing Mark Martin in Hendrick’s No. 5 car.

Kahne is coming off a season in which he finished 14th in the standings, but he and Francis, his long-time crew chief, teamed to win the next-to-last race of the season at Phoenix.

With 12 career victories, Kahne is considered a perennial Chase contender now that he’s with Hendrick, one of the sport’s elite teams. Whether he’s a serious championship contender remains to be seen.

As excited as the people at Hendrick are to have Kahne, the other drivers and crew chiefs seem just as excited to have Francis. They look forward to Francis’ input in their intermediate track program.

This appears to be a winning move for all involved.

2. Danica Patrick to NASCAR full time

Patrick’s career in IndyCar racing was going nowhere, and she was showing promise in NASCAR with a fourth-place finish in the Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas last year, the highest finish ever for a female driver in NASCAR.

With a larger and more passionate following and a better national television package, NASCAR provides Patrick a much bigger stage.

It’s a stage on which she still has potential while she appeared to have reached her peak in the IndyCar world.

Patrick will run the full Nationwide schedule for JR Motorsports while preparing for a move to Sprint Cup. A full season of NASCAR with stock cars as her sole focus should allow her to get much more comfortable in the cars and more confident in her abilities.

She won’t have a problem attracting sponsors and already has her full-time Sprint Cup plans in place for 2012 at Stewart-Haas Racing, where she will compete in 10 races this year.

Patrick will earn a healthy paycheck and bring major cash to SHR. Now all she has to do is perform, and all the pieces are there for her to be successful – good cars, good people and a strong team. And while she will race under a bright spotlight, she won’t have the pressure to perform immediately.

3. Mark Martin to Michael Waltrip Racing

Martin joins an organization that doesn’t have the pedigree of Hendrick Motorsports.

But he’s getting his wish of running a part-time schedule (25 races). Good.

And the organization has won races, winning twice with David Reutimann. Good.

So what’s not to like? And MWR certainly won’t complain about having one of the sport’s all-time greats in its stable.

With Martin and Clint Bowyer behind the wheel, along with teammate Martin Truex Jr., MWR will have a good gauge of where it stands in its development as a multicar team.

Martin has 40 career victories, and it’s likely he will end up with more when his two-year deal at MWR is done.

4. Darian Grubb to Joe Gibbs Racing, Denny Hamlin

Darian Grubb was shown the door in October, told he wouldn’t return as Tony Stewart’s crew chief after the season, and then left with the 2011 Sprint Cup championship, walking away from Stewart-Haas Racing with his head held high.

Grubb, a former crew chief and engineer at Hendrick, didn’t stay unemployed for long. He landed at Joe Gibbs Racing and will be the crew chief for one of the top drivers in the garage in Hamlin, who won eight races and nearly a championship in 2010.

The Grubb-Hamlin pairing should pay immediate dividends. His transition to JGR should be smooth, and Hamlin’s team might just need a different voice than former crew chief Mike Ford. Grubb has the knowledge and experience to make it work.

5. Steve Addington to SHR, Tony Stewart

Addington can’t do better than Grubb unless he wins two championships with Stewart.

That might be a lot to ask and there will be a transition period for Addington and Stewart. But if Stewart proved anything last year, it was that it doesn’t matter as much what a team does in the first 26 races as it does in the 10-race Chase.

Addington has a cool demeanor and after working with the temperamental Busch brothers the last four years, should be able to handle anything Stewart does and not let it destroy the team.

He might not top Grubb’s 2011 Chase, but he will be solid and Stewart will continue to win races and contend for the championship.

6. Greg Zipadelli to Stewart-Haas Racing

Stewart’s long-time crew chief at Joe Gibbs Racing not only will serve as competition director at SHR, but will be the crew chief for Danica Patrick for at least the Daytona 500.

His presence gives Stewart peace of mind in that he now has a competition director and there’s no rush to hire a crew chief for when Patrick goes full-time Cup racing in 2013. Zipadelli can continue doing that as long as necessary.

Zipadelli probably doesn’t want to be a full-time crew chief anymore. After more than a decade on top of the pit box – with Stewart and Joey Logano – he probably wouldn’t mind missing a few race weekends.

SHR is looking for more consistency on the track and from its pit crews, and Zipadelli should bring a wealth of ideas as well as some energy to the SHR shop.

7. Clint Bowyer, Brian Pattie to MWR

This is an organization that has something to prove, and it now has a Chase-proven driver in Bowyer and a crew chief with Chase experience in Brian Pattie.

It’s first Chase driver-crew chief pairing of Martin Truex Jr.-Pat Tryson didn’t produce results, so MWR needs to show that its equipment and drivers are good enough to consistently compete for wins and a spot in the top 12.

Bowyer won races and finished as high as third in the standings with Richard Childress Racing. Pattie led Juan Pablo Montoya to victory lane (2010) and into the Chase (2009).

With MWR having shown signs of potential with two victories by Reutimann and promising runs by Truex Jr., there is an opportunity for Bowyer to make some noise.

8. Shane Wilson to Kevin Harvick

Harvick finished third in the standings the last two years and then asked for a crew chief change, leading to Gil Martin being replaced.

With Wilson having no team after Bowyer’s No. 33 car went away, he was a natural fit having already worked with Harvick.

But that’s no guarantee for success. Martin was a solid crew chief, leading Harvick to seven wins the past two years, and while he had the same fire as Harvick, he also helped his crewmen rally when Harvick got frustrated with their performance.

Wilson will have to work hard to make sure Harvick and his crew don’t crack under the pressure of knowing that third in points again will not be good enough.

9. AJ Allmendinger to Penske Racing

This obviously is a great move for Allmendinger. It’s a career opportunity.

But what about for Penske? It gave up a 24-race winner and past champion for a driver who has not won in a stock car.

It’s taking a chance on Allmendinger’s potential, and it has had mixed results in the past when taking such a chance. Sam Hornish Jr. struggled after moving to NASCAR from IndyCar with Penske.

It also is just a two-car operation with no other teams in the Dodge camp, which means that if it gets behind, catching up could be a problem.

It also has paired Allmendinger with a rookie Cup crew chief in Todd Gordon, which adds to the questions of how much can Penske really expect early on from the No. 22 team.

10. Kurt Busch to Phoenix Racing

If there are questions about the Allmendinger-Penske pairing, the questions surrounding the former Penske driver are even greater.

Can Busch, who drove for Penske and won a championship with Roush Fenway Racing, perform with a team that doesn’t have much sponsorship and nowhere near the engineering and resources that he’s used to?

And can a driver who has won 24 races and gets frustrated easily really be satisfied with 15th-place finishes if that’s the best he can do?

Busch should be strong on restrictor-plate tracks but this is not a team that runs up front consistently. Was it the driver or the team?

This could either be one of the season’s biggest surprises or Busch’s most disappointing season.

11. Drew Blickensderfer to Jeff Burton

Burton needed an experienced crew chief and a fresh face running his team, and the addition of Blickensderfer to Richard Childress Racing should be a plus.

Blickensderfer won the Daytona 500 with Matt Kenseth at Roush Fenway Racing but also was reassigned when things didn’t go well with Kenseth. He showed, however, that he can keep his head up and work hard and perform, leading David Ragan to a win at Daytona last July. He also could bring some new ideas to the RCR camp.

But whether he can get Burton back into Chase contention is a big question. Burton, 44, struggled last year and didn’t turn things around until late in the season.

Aric Almirola spent 2011 driving in the Nationwide Series for JR Motorsports. (Photo: Getty Images)
12. Aric Almirola to Richard Petty Motorsports

Almirola has 35 Cup races on his resume but has never had the opportunity to get in a rhythm and run a full season.

Considering he was second in the Camping World Truck Series standings in 2010 and fourth in the Nationwide Series standings in 2011, he has earned a chance at a full-time ride.

But he can’t be expected to run as well as Allmendinger (15th in 2011) right away.

He’s an unproven talent on an unproven team. Brad Keselowski struggled at Penske in his first full Cup year in 2010. A top-20 finish in points for Almirola would be respectable.

13. Todd Berrier to JTG Daugherty Racing

Berrier, a former crew chief for Harvick and Burton at RCR, takes over as crew chief for Bobby Labonte as well as general manager of JTG Daugherty Racing.

JTG Daugherty will still get equipment from Michael Waltrip Racing but be responsible for more of its own preparation and work out of its own shop.

Berrier has a wealth of experience but whether he can translate that into success at JTG Daugherty and with Labonte, who struggled to 29th in the standings in 2011, is debatable.

14. Jason Ratcliff to Joey Logano

Logano never maximized his potential with the veteran Zipadelli, so Joe Gibbs Racing hopes that he meshes better with young Jason Ratcliff.

Ratcliff has proven he can win in the Nationwide Series – with Kyle Busch – and recent crew chiefs who have moved from Nationwide to Cup have had success.

But there’s still the unknown and pressure on Logano to perform. That could too much pressure to allow Logano to win races and make the Chase.

15. Chris Heroy to Pablo Montoya

Heroy has never been a full-time crew chief, and starting him with Montoya, who has been through his share of crew chiefs, will be either a brilliant move or one that will have people scratching their heads.

The move was made because Heroy has proven himself as an engineer at Hendrick Motorsports and in a few races as crew chief at JR Motorsports.

He appears ready for the move but the big question is whether he will succeed where others have failed with Montoya, who has struggled in four of the five seasons since he moved to NASCAR from Formula One.

SceneDaily.com • Trevor Bayne to return to Wood Brothers in 2012
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Bob Pockrass

SceneDaily.com

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