Danica Patrick gets new crew chief
Danica Patrick will move to the Sprint Cup Series full-time next season and have a new crew chief. (Getty Images)
Danica Patrick will have veteran crew chief Tony Gibson work with her next year in his first full Sprint Cup Series season.
The move is one of many changes for the Stewart-Haas lineup next season.
Gibson, currently the crew chief of the No. 39 U.S. Army/Quicken Loans team of driver Ryan Newman, will move to the No. 10 GoDaddy.com team of Patrick. Gibson will get a jump start on the 2013 season by serving as Patrick's crew chief during her last two Sprint Cup races of the 2012 season -- Nov. 4 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth and Nov. 11 at Phoenix International Raceway.
Matt Borland, currently the vice president of competition for SHR, will add to his duties by returning to the role of crew chief when he takes over the No. 39 team beginning at Martinsville. Borland served as Newman's crew chief for five years when the two were together at Penske Racing (2002-06), earning 12 wins and 37 poles.
The 2013 structure of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 team of driver/owner Tony Stewart and crew chief Steve Addington will remain unchanged from 2012.
Greg Zipadelli, competition director for SHR, explained the restructuring.
“We have a lot of talented people at Stewart-Haas Racing and as we grow, it's important to place people in the proper roles to get the best out of everyone.
“Tony Gibson has been with Stewart-Haas Racing from the beginning and knows what it takes to build a team. His experience will be crucial to developing the No. 10 team and Danica, and the rapport he already has with Matt Borland and Steve Addington will make the communication between all three of our teams seamless.
“Matt Borland has had great success as a crew chief, and much of it came when he and Ryan Newman worked together. Matt and Ryan both have engineering backgrounds and they have similar mindsets. It's a pairing that produced some very good results and there's no reason why it can't produce similar results now that they're back together. Their four races together this year will position them very well for 2013.”
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