Joe Gibbs Racing announced Tuesday that
Kyle Busch will have a new crew chief for his No.18 Sprint Cup Series team
after this weekend's race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Dave Rogers will replace Steve Addington for the final three Cup races this
season -- Texas, Phoenix and Homestead.
Rogers is in his fourth season as crew chief with the No.20 JGR team in the
Nationwide Series. He led the team to its first Nationwide owner's
championship in 2008 with nine victories and 26 top-10 finishes. The team has
won five races so far this year with driver Joey Logano. Rogers returns to the
Cup Series after serving as Jason Leffler's crew chief with JGR's No.11 entry
during the first half of the 2005 season.
Addington has been the crew chief for the No.18 team the previous five
seasons. He guided Busch to eight victories in Busch's first year with the
team last year.
Despite four wins so far in 2009, Busch failed to make the 12-driver field for
this year's "Chase for the Sprint Cup" championship.
JGR will reassign Addington to another position following Talladega.
"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," Joe Gibbs
Racing president J.D. Gibbs said in a team statement. "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."
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