Rogers taking over No. 18
Steve Addington out as No. 18's crew chief
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Dave Rogers will take over as crew chief of Kyle Busch's Sprint Cup series team for the final three races. Rogers, who has worked with Busch in the Nationwide Series in the past, will replace Steve Addington after Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway. Their first race together will be at Texas Motor Speedway next weekend.
Addington, who has been crew chief of the No. 18 car for five seasons with three different drivers, will be reassigned at Joe Gibbs Racing, the team said.
"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 statement on Tuesday. "We think highly of Steve and the job he has done and we look forward to him remaining a part of the JGR family. "
Gibbs said Sunday at Martinsville Speedway that he was looking at a possible change for next season. He expressed concern for the performance of Busch's Sprint Cup team, which missed the Chase and had nine finishes of 20th or worse for 21 races prior to its fourth-place finish at Martinsville.
Busch has seven wins and 27 top-10s in the Nationwide Series this season. He has all but wrapped up that title with a 215-point lead.
Rogers is in his fourth season as the crew chief of the No. 20 Nationwide car. He led JGR to its first Nationwide owner's championship in 2008 with nine wins, six poles, 16 top-5s and 26 top-10s.
That team has five wins this season with rookie Joey Logano as the primary driver.
"Dave has proven himself a talented crew chief and we think he will work well with Kyle,'' Gibbs said. "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."
David Newton covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at dnewtonespn@aol.com.
