(photo courtesy of Leon Hammack)
Joe Gibbs Racing has just announced that following the race at Talladega this Sunday, Steve Addington will no longer serve as the #18 M&M’s Toyota crew chief. A JGR spokesman stated that Addington will be reassigned to another position within Joe Gibbs Racing.
Dave Rogers, who is in his fourth year as the crew chief of the Joe Gibbs Racing #20 Nationwide Toyota driven this season by the young phenom Joey Logano, will take over the helm of the #18 M&M’s Toyota. Rogers directed the #20 Nationwide Toyota to JGR’s only Nationwide championship to date in 2008. In the 2008 championship drive, Rogers led the team to 9 victories, 6 poles, 16 top five finishes, and 26 top ten finishes despite having 4 different drivers in the race car!
Under Rogers’ leadership, the JGR #20 Nationwide Toyota has captured 5 wins so far in 2009. Rogers joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 1998 and spent from 1999-2004 working under Greg Zipadelli with the #20 Home Depot Chevy at the time.
In 2005 JGR introduced the #11 FedEx Chevy driven then by Jason Leffler to NASCAR and Rogers was tabbed as the crew chief. Midway through the 2005 season Mike Ford assumed that position and Rogers was reassigned into the engineering department at JGR.
At the beginning of the 2006 season Rogers was assigned to the #20 Nationwide teams as crew chief. Since that time, Rogers has been the overseer of 20 Nationwide victories for the JGR#20 Nationwide team.
“We think highly of Steve and the job that he has done and we look forward to him remaining part of the JGR family”, Gibbs said.
“Dave has proven himself a talented crew chief and we think that he will work well with Kyle. We hope that by making the move after Talladega they can use the final three weeks of the season to begin working on the communication and setups for the 2010 season”, J.D. Gibbs continued.
The dominos are beginning to fall!
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
