Hyder will be at Iowa Speedway, serving as crew chief for JTG’s K&N Pro Series East team and driver Cale Conley.

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• JTG Announces Organizational Changes To No. 47 Team
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JTG has a candidate in mind to replace Berrier long term, but couldn’t get a deal done in time.

Berrier left JTG Daugherty Racing to join FRR.

Berrier said:

Furniture Row Racing has a reputation in the Sprint Cup garage for its commitment and potential. I welcome this opportunity and can’t wait to begin my new position at Indianapolis this weekend.

Luke Lambert, who has been serving as interim crew chief for the No. 31, will assume a new position with RCR. Lambert became interim crew chief for Burton in July, when he replaced Todd Berrier.

MWR also has a technial alliance with Germain Racing, but there has been no word on whether that may be a potential destination for Berrier.

At this point, this is a rumor as nothing has been confirmed.

Performance is at a stand-still for drivers like Burton, Biffle and Almendinger.  They have a handful of top 10 finishes between them this year and have been flying under the radar all season. Making a crew chief change is a perfect opportunity for these teams to get the improvements they have been looking for. 

All of these teams have the potential to finish well every week, they are just missing a certain spark to get to those finishes.  Hopefully these changes will provide that spark.

For Truex Jr’s team, I feel that communication is one of the major issues.  With only three top 10 finishes and many DNF’s this season, a change had to be made.  Earlier in the year, the team replaced their tire changers in hopes of improving performance.  Unfortunately, their luck never improved.  The No. 56 team now has Chad Johnson as crew chief, formally the lead engineer of Micheal Waltrip Racing.

This team has nothing to lose and everything to gain.  We know that Truex has the potential to win races, he just needs a strong team backing to get there.  I think this change will take time to settle in, but will eventually bring improvement to that MWR team.

Montoya seems to be the roller-coaster driver of this season.  He started off the year well and was as high as fourth in points.  However, in five races out of the last ten, he has finished 20th or worse and has now plummeted to 17th in points.  In my opinion, the crew chief is not the problem. 

We’ve seen Montoya lose his temper with other drivers and his own team countless times throughout the year.  I feel like his temper gets in the way of focusing on his job.  Maybe his new crew chief, Jim Pohlman, can keep the Colombian driver level-headed.  If not, I think Ganassi needs to address the situation and figure out a solution for Montoya.  He is a talented driver, he just needs to focus on his race, rather than focusing on who he’s going to box after the race.

In conclusion, I don’t think this will be the last crew chief changes of the season.  Drivers like, Brian Vickers and Jamie McMurray are used to running well, and aren’t having the finishes they need.  Possible crew chief changes?  I guess we’ll just have to keep watching as this season unfolds.

Team owner Richard Childress said:

Todd has been an important part of RCR’s success for many years. He is still employed and under contract and his role with RCR will be determined in the near future. … Luke will be the interim crew chief until further notice. He has a strong grasp of the job requirements and an established line of communication with Jeff (Burton) so we have every confidence that he will do a great job.

Lambert added:

I’m honored that Richard and Jeff have the confidence in me to lead the Cat Racing team. This is a talented group of guys who know what it takes and has been successful so there’s no reason to think we can’t be successful moving forward.

Burton and Berrier have struggled this season. Burton has no wins, no top 5s, and no top 10s thus far in the season, and he sits 25th in the Sprint Cup championship standings. He joins AJ Allmendinger, Greg Biffle, Juan Montoya, and Martin Truex Jr as drivers who have recently experienced crew chief changes.

The switch is expected to be made after this weekend’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Todd Berrier will move from the No. 29, where he served as Harvick’s crew chief for five years, to Mears and the No. 07.

Gil Martin will move to Harvick’s team. Martin was the crew chief for Clint Bowyer where he made two consecutive Chase appearances.

One of the reasons Mears never performed up to expectations at Hendrick Motorsports was that he never established a relationship with a crew chief because they were bounced around to and from his team.

I hope that’s not happening at RCR. I hope he gets in a season or two with Berrier to see what this kid actually has got.

Labonte To Get New Crew Chief

Yates Racing is also giving Hall Of Fame Racing driver Bobby Labonte a new crew cheif.

Ben Leslie, former crew cheif of Yates’ No. 28 and driver Travis Kvapil, is moving over to the team.

The No. 28 team was performing pretty well, before having to close its doors due to lack of sponsorship.

Current crew cheif Todd Parrott will move to another role within the organization, working with all Yates teams.

Labonte said:

I’m looking forward to working with Ben. He’s done a lot with Ford Racing specifically and I like that he has experience with many Champion drivers. I’m excited to see what we will do together on the track in the next few weeks.

Also, a crew cheif swap was discussed at Hendrick Motorsports.

I guess spring is the season of change.