Better racing through chemistry is at the heart of every crew chief-driver relationship, but it’s also about working through differences in a partnership arranged by someone else.
“I mean, think of it like a marriage, I guess,” Austin Cindric said. “But a lot of times you don’t get to choose who you marry, in some sense.
“I mean, it’s any person-to-person relationship, right? You’re gonna have things that complement each other, you’re gonna have things that don’t.”
In the wake of disappointing results spurring another high-profile crew chief change — in this case, the No. 3 of Austin Dillon — NBC Sports asked several Cup drivers what makes a successful relationship with their team’s leader. The most common refrain was communication — drivers want open discourse with the person atop the pit box with a simple objective.
“Fast race cars,” Alex Bowman said. “You can yell at me. You can do whatever you want as long as we have fast race cars.”
Richard Childress Racing made a change after Richmond, reuniting Dillon, who was 28th in points, with Justin Alexander for the third time.
Trackhouse Racing made a change prior to the season and replaced Travis Mack with Matt Swiderski. The result was a win at Atlanta and a spot in the playoffs.
Team Penske has shuffled its lineups multiple times, most notably in 2020 when Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano all began working with new crew chiefs and teams. Cindric has worked with two different crew chiefs in little more than two seasons of Cup racing.
A top crew chief is not the only key to success. They are supported by teams of engineers, mechanics, interior specialists and tuners. The crew chief is just the person who runs the show, much like a coach on the NFL sidelines.
Kyle Busch pointed out that there were plenty of good minds at RCR. Rodden achieved success as an engineer and crew chief while working at such organizations as Evernham Motorsports, Chip Ganassi Racing and Hendrick Motorsports. There are just other underlying factors that play a role in the success of each particular pairing.
Sometimes, the situation just isn’t a great fit. Though Hendrick essentially let William Byron hand-pick Rudy Fugle, drivers and crew chiefs usually are matched by team executives without guarantee of success.
“I mean, it’s a relationship just like any other one,” Logano said. “It’s hard though because you don’t know what you got until you work together.
“I mean, most of time you go on a date with a girl a few times before you marry her. And in this case, you go on a couple of job interviews and you go to work and you hope it works.”
Building this communication – and relationship by extension – is not instantaneous, something that Todd Gilliland and Erik Jones both highlighted.
It takes time to fully reach a level of trust that can translate into success.
“I didn’t know Dave (Elenz) at all before he came over to the 43,” Jones said. “I don’t know that I even had a conversation with him before then. It was a blind faith hire. I knew he was talented, knew what he could do.
“… Even by the time we won at Darlington that first year, I wouldn’t say we were near the level of communication we are at now.”
Communication and a strong relationship both play a role in the success of a driver-crew chief pairing. This has been made evident over the years with Chase Elliott and Alan Gustafson; Byron and Fugle; Logano and Paul Wolfe; Kyle Larson and Cliff Daniels; and multiple other combos.
These relationships are so important that some teams have taken steps to “get the band back together.” Byron and Fugle contended for a Truck Series championship with Kyle Busch Motorsports and then reunited in Cup with Hendrick Motorsports. Since joining forces once again, they have won 12 times. This includes three trips to victory lane in the first eight races this season.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Mike Kelley reunited at JTG Daugherty Racing after winning consecutive Xfinity championships at Roush. Cindric spent three Xfinity seasons with Brian Wilson and won a championship. They reunited in Cup last midway through last season.
NASCAR history has shown that once the driver and crew chief truly gel, their relationship goes a long way toward delivering success on the race track. They run better, they contend for wins and, potentially, championships.
And once the relationship reaches that pinnacle, it’s difficult for the driver to want to work with anyone else.
“You believe in that guy,” Stenhouse said. “You’ve accomplished a lot of good things together. For me, Mike (Kelley) is my guy and always has been. … I feel like it’s almost like racing with my dad in sprint cars.”
