Race Weekend Central

Stewart-Haas Racing Announces Crew Swap

On Wednesday afternoon, Stewart-Haas Racing officially announced a substantial shake up for the final three races of the season. The crew chiefs and road crews for the No. 10 of Danica Patrick and the No. 41 of Kurt Busch will switch teams. As a result, Tony Gibson is now the crew chief for Kurt Busch, while Daniel Knost is the crew chief for Patrick. The pit crews will not swap.

The new rule changes set to go in effect as soon as the checkered flag falls in Homestead are the catalyst for Wednesday’s move.

“We made this change to evaluate our program and to get a head start on 2015,” said Greg Zipadelli, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Vice President of Competition. “With the ban on testing next year, the last three races of this season take on even greater importance. For Tony Gibson and Kurt, they’ll get three races together that will provide direction for next year. And for Daniel Knost and Danica, this is an opportunity for them develop a rapport that could potentially continue into 2015.”

The Nos. 10 and 41 teams will remain unchanged for this weekend’s Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 at Martinsville Speedway.  Instead, the new pairings will debut at Texas Motor Speedway

Gibson has served as Patrick’s crew chief for 70 of her 78 career starts. In that time, Patrick has four top-10 finishes with a best of sixth at Atlanta. For Knost, the 32 races atop Busch’s pit box are the only races that he’s worked as a crew chief. He has one career victory, the Spring race at Martinsville back in April that propelled Busch into the Chase. Busch totaled six top-5 and nine top-10 finishes with Knost in command.

 

 

About the author

Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.

Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.

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