Noah Gragson will be paired with Grant Hutchens as his crew chief for the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, Front Row Motorsports announced Jan. 9.
Hutchens replaces Drew Blickensderfer, who has been promoted to competition director of FRM.
“We are very fortunate, and I am extremely excited to add experienced, talented people like Grant and Jonathan [DeHart, aerodynamics manager] to leadership roles in the organization,” FRM owner Bob Jenkins said in a team release. “With the inclusion of our Truck Series teams, we operate five full-time teams and I’m equally as excited to have Drew turn his attention to providing direction and guidance to our crew chiefs and competition group as a whole.
“Having Drew in this new role for us and Seth [Barbour, technical director] being able to focus on the technical aspects within our team, it puts us in a better position to execute on the track and achieve our goals in 2026.”
Hutchens joins FRM from Team Penske, where he had most recently been the team’s test crew chief following multiple lead engineering roles.
In 2025, Gragson earned one top five and three top 10s in his first season in FRM’s No. 4.
Kevin Rutherford is the executive editor of Frontstretch, a position he gained in 2025 after being the managing editor since 2015, and serving on the editing staff since 2013.
At his day job, he's a journalist covering music and rock charts at Billboard. He lives in New York City, but his heart is in Ohio -- you know, like that Hawthorne Heights song.



