Blickensderfer replaces Mike Ford, who served as crew chief of the No. 9 team without a contract. Ford is said to have been offered a crew chief job at BK Racing.

Luke Lambert, crew chief of RCR’s No. 2 Nationwide Series team and driver Elliott Sadler, will take over as crew chief of the No. 31 Sprint Cup team in 2013.

In the interim, Shane Wilson will serve as crew chief for Burton and the No. 31.

Team owner Richard Childress said:

I want to thank Drew for all of his effort with the No. 31 Caterpillar team this season. He’s a great crew chief and I can’t say enough about his dedication to RCR. Making the move now, before the season is over, gives Drew some additional time to pursue other opportunities.

Ambrose will now have Mike Ford atop the pit box, while Almirola will have Todd Parrott as his crew chief.

The goal of this move is to strengthen both teams.

RPM competition director Sammy Johns said:

We’re continuing to make improvements at Richard Petty Motorsports and we’ve added talented people to our organization this season. This move is to make sure that we are using that talent to the fullest to get the best results for our teams each weekend. We feel this adjustment will strengthen the organization, allow us to continue to compete for wins and ultimately challenge for championships.

Parrott said:

Aric has really shown the desire and dedication to get his first Sprint Cup Series win. It was great our team helped lead Marcos to his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win and poles. We are now ready to help direct Almirola and the #43 team to the same results and better.

Ford said:

Marcos is a racer who has proven to win poles and races. Our goal is to take my experiences and make sure we can consistently run up front and continue to win races.

In related news, FoxSports.com is reporting that RPM officials met with people from Richard Childress Racing about becoming a satellite organization to RCR, which would mean a switch from Ford to Chevy.

Team owner Richard Petty said:

No comment on anything because I don’t have a clue what’s going on. When we get everything squared away, we’ll talk to you. Other than that, there ain’t nothing. There ain’t nothing there ’til we bring something there, and right now we have nothing.

Ford will join the team immediately, and will be atop the pit box starting at this weekend’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Ford has led the No. 11 Toyota to the Chase for the Sprint Cup in each of the last six seasons, and he has 17 wins to his credit as a crew chief, with 66 top 5s, and 108 top 10s.

There has been no word on what will happen to Erwin.

Related Stories

• It’s Official: Grubb Joins JGR, Hamlin
• Erwin Re-Signs With Richard Petty Motorsports
• Erwin In As Allmendinger’s Crew Chief
• Erwin Out As Biffle’s Crew Chief

Zippadelli will join SHR as competition director. There was speculation during the season that Zipadelli would join SHR as Stewart’s crew chief, as the two won two Sprint Cup championships together. But, following the firing of Darian Grubb, Stewart chose Steve Addington to sit atop the pit box. Grubb joined JGR as crew chief for Denny Hamlin, with Mike Ford getting released.

JGR confirmed Zipadelli’s release. No word on who will replace him as crew chief for the No. 20 car.

Update: In another tweet, Utter reported that Jason Ratcliff will serve as crew chief for the No. 20 team. Ratcliff climbed the ranks in the Nationwide Series, working at Sadler Racing and Brewco Motorsports before joining JGR in 2005 as crew chief for JJ Yeley. He then went on to serve as crew chief for Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch, winning the 2009 Nationwide Series championship with Busch.

Update 2: JGR issued a press release indicating the moves.

Team owner Joe Gibbs said:

Darian is a great addition to our organization and person to lead our No. 11 FedEx team. Obviously he has proven the ability to guide a team to a championship and we are excited to have him working with Denny toward achieving that goal here at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Grubb said:

I’m thrilled to join Joe Gibbs Racing. The chance to work with Denny is something I’m excited about. When you sit down with Joe and [president] J.D. Gibbs, you can’t help but be excited about this opportunity and the team aspects of JGR. There is no question about the level of support you get here and I’m looking forward to working with everyone across the entire organization.

Grubb was told halfway through the Chase that he would be fired from Stewart Haas Racing at season’s end. Following that discussion, Stewart went on a tear, winning the championship as the result of a tie-breaker with Carl Edwards. SHR released Grubb, as they said they would. Steve Addington replaced Grubb at SHR as crew chief for Tony Stewart.

Following his release, the Associated Press reported that Mike Ford had been let go as crew chief for Hamlin, citing Hamlin’s struggles this season, and the release of Grubb as factors.

After his release, Ford said:

I’m kind of relieved. It had been dragging on for so long, I’m actually relieved there’s finally a resolution.

Team owner Joe Gibbs issues a statement:

Everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing appreciates what Mike has done for our organization over the past six seasons as crew chief with our No. 11 team. We’ve decided it was best to make a change with the team now to allow Mike the opportunity to pursue other opportunities.

Hamlin, who has not performed to expectations thus far this season, ran out of fuel during the closing laps of the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He was running fifth at the time and wound up finishing 29th.

During the conference, he was asked about his relationship with Mike Ford, his crew chief and the one who, ultimately, gets most of the blame for the No. 11 Toyota running out of fuel in the closing laps.

Hamlin said:

[W]e all know this is a performance business, and obviously you’ve got to be competitive and contend for race wins so everyone feels good about their job. I feel like Mike is the guy for me. I feel like he’s done a great job. He won me eight races last year. Some of the things that we’ve had go wrong this year are crew chief related, some of them are not. Most of them are not. Some of them are driver related. It weighs on all of our shoulders equally, and I feel like he’s kind of received a bit of a bad rap because of that.

Hamlin went on to call Ford the backbone of the race team, and said that replacing Ford would set the team back even further. He said:

[O]bviously if you made a change, it would take a long time to get back to where I feel like we’re capable of running at this point right now. I think at times during the season we’ve gotten off track between the two of us, and I feel like these last four or five weeks the communication has been better. I feel like we were heading in the right direction, we’ve just had some things go wrong these first couple Chase races that makes it look worse than it really is.

Hamlin added that everyone has contributed to the ups and downs of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Sprint Cup Toyota team. Some weeks, he says, it has been Ford’s calls on the pit box, some weeks it has been on his shoulders, and some weeks things back at the shop are what need to be improved. He said:

Until we have one specific thing that we need to work on and can identify as a problem, I can’t see changing much. But I feel like we have a good group of guys. I can win a championship with Mike; I really and truly do believe that. But we’ve just got to get our ship righted. It seems like our communication at some point in the year got stale. I felt like we’ve turned that around this last month or so, and we had three good finishes going into the Chase, and of course we had flat tires and a loose wheel the first Chase race. That’s stuff that Mike can’t help. … Loudon, New Hampshire, fuel mileage. It’s 50/50. It’s one of those things where maybe I used up too much gas, maybe it was too risky of a call. But either way, it weighs on us equally when we don’t run well. So I’m not going to completely throw him under the bus.

Hamlin currently sits in 12th place in the standings, 66 behind points leader Tony Stewart and virtually out of contention. In a year in which the team had such high expectations, it is good to see that Hamlin is committed to Mike Ford, the man that has been his crew chief since he entered the Cup series.

Hamlin is also working with a sports psychologist to help gain some perspective and a better outlook.

The three JGR crew chiefs were each fined $50,000 and placed on probation until the end of the calendar year.  All three car chiefs along with JGR’s senior vice president of racing operations were also placed on probation until the end of the year.

JGR brought unapproved oil pans to the track on Friday. A typical oil pan weighs about four pounds, while the JGR oil pans weighed between 20 and 30 pounds.

Some said that the heavy oil pans would allow the teams to remove weight elsewhere in the car and put it low on the front of the car, which could provide a handling advantage.

In my opinion, NASCAR is getting soft with their fines this season.  Remember in 2006 when Chad Knaus was ejected from Daytona Speedweeks?  He had a device that raised the rear window of Jimmie Johnson’s car, giving it an aerodynamic advantage in qualifying.  How about in 2005 when Todd Berrier was suspended for four weeks and fined $25,000 for doctoring a fuel cell on Kevin Harvick’s car at Las Vegas.

A $50,000 fine may be a bit stiff for the crew chiefs, but probation is basically a slap on the wrist. It’s NASCAR’s way of saying,  ”We’ll be watching you.” But, beyond that, it’s really not a penalty.

I think they should have received a points penalty. I think they should have lost owner’s points, and maybe even driver points.  It would be different if their oil pans were a pound or two heavier than usual.  But 20 to 30 pounds?  That was obviously done on purpose in an attempt to give the JGR cars an unfair advantage.

A move like this is unnecessary for the JGR cars.  As we saw this weekend at Michigan, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch didn’t need any help making their cars faster.

Every team tries to bend the rules to get any advantage they can. It’s the nature of the sport. But, if NASCAR wants to change that perception, they should make the penalties stiffer, including raising fines.

In this particular case, I think the fines were slightly fair, but not as high as I would have liked to see.

All three JGR cars were found to be in violation of Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing); 12-4-J (any determination by NASCAR officials that the race equipment used in an event does not conform to NASCAR rules detailed in Section 20 of the NASCAR rule book, or has not been approved by NASCAR prior to the event); and 20-5.5.4A (oil pan, failure to submit component) of the Sprint Cup Series rule book.

Crew chiefs Mike Ford (No. 11 car), Dave Rogers (No. 18 car) and Greg Zipadelli (No. 20 car) have been fined $50,000 each and placed on NASCAR probation until the end of the calendar year.

In addition, all three car chiefs – Chris Gillin (No. 11 car), Wesley Sherrill (No. 18 car) and Jason Shapiro (No. 20 car) along with Senior Vice President of Racing Operations Jimmy Makar have been placed on NASCAR probation until the end of the year.

Captain Thunder Racing

Hamlin currently sits 17th in points. After eight races last season, Hamlin was 11th in points. Logano is currently 24th in points, compared to being 12th in points after the eighth race last season.

According to Captain Thunder, JGR wants Zipadelli to move to Hamlin’s team because Zipadelli has championship experience — winning two Sprint Cups with Tony Stewart — and JGR officials believe the No. 11 team needs that experience.

Hamlin has only one top 10 finish this season; a season in which many expected him to dethrone five-time champion Jimmie Johnson. Ford has taken much of the blame for this season’s performance, as he did at the end of last season for Hamlin’s failure to win the championship.

Logano has been just as bad as Hamlin this season — posting only one top 10 in eight races. Some selected him to be a dark horse to make the Chase. At this rate, he will not.

While JGR experienced engine problems earlier this season, Captain Thunder contends that chemistry issues may be the bigger problem. Ford and Hamlin have been at odds since last season, he claims. And, Zipadelli was not enthused to go from two-time champion Stewart to an 18-year old rookie.

Update: Several media members are reporting via Twitter that this rumor has been denied by officials at Joe Gibbs Racing. At this point, this should be considered a rumor only.

Update 2: Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin have both denied the rumor that a crew chief swap between the two teams is imminent.

Hamlin said:

It was news to me. [Joe Gibbs] called me as soon as he saw it and I was like, “Maybe I should be part of this decision.” And he was like,”‘There is no decision.” Mike is my guy. He will always be my guy.