Power Rankings: Kenseth burning through crew chiefs this year

Updated June 28

Following the race in Sonoma, Roush Fenway Racing made the somewhat puzzling decision to replace Todd Parrott with Jimmy Fennig as Matt Kenseth's crew chief.

Matt Kenseth has finished four consecutive races outside the top 10. (AP)

Considering it's Kenseth's third crew chief this season, you'd think he was struggling well down the standings. But that's not the case at all. Fact is, Kenseth sat seventh in the standings heading into Sunday's race at New Hampshire, best of the Roush contingent.

But owner Jack Roush was concerned about a growing lack of communication between Parrott and Kenseth and decided to take action.

"We're continually working for and looking for the best chemistry between driver and crew chief, and the best relationship between a crew chief and his team," Roush said. "A crew chief needs to reach and get all the energy that's in the driver and give the driver everything that he recognizes that he needs and sometimes the things he doesn't recognize he needs. That's a crew chief's job to be perceptive on that and to reconcile it.

"We weren't getting the number of changes in a practice session that we thought we needed. We were a little slow in the garage area. I don't fault the guys for that, but the direction and the plan may not have been as well-defined or understood. So the combination of the plan not working as well as it needed to with the team, and the strategies not working as well as they had in the first few races with Todd resulted in our making the decision that the team wasn't where it needed to be."

Drew Blickensderfer started this season as Kenseth's crew chief, but was replaced by Parrott after an eighth-place finish in the Daytona 500. Parrott and Kenseth had five top 10s in their first six races together, but followed with just two top 10s in the next nine.

Interestingly, Kenseth said Robbie Reiser, with whom he has shared the most success during his Cup career, including a championship in 2003, was under consideration for a return to the post.

"Robbie had a chance to come back and do it, but the problem is Robbie wants to do everything, so he didn't want to leave his post at the front office," Kenseth said. "There's a lot more going on and a lot more important things in Roush Fenway Racing than just one team. It's about the whole organization as well, so there's no way you can do both. I think he probably would have come and filled in for the rest of the year if he could try to do both, but there just are not enough hours in a day."

Kenseth has worked with Fennig previously. In 2006 the pair racked up four poles, three wins, 15 top fives and 18 top 10 finishes in 21 starts in the Nationwide Series. However, their Cup debut together was much less successful with Kenseth leaving New Hampshire with a 17th-place finish, his fourth consecutive outside the top 10.

If the trend continues, it doesn't seem that farfetched that Kenseth could see a fourth crew chief before the end of the season. Especially with Roush Fenway's other teams laboring of late, a mass reorganization could be in the offing.

"It does seem like I'm pretty hard on crew chiefs lately, that's for sure, but we've just had some opportunities within the organization," Kenseth said. "Jack has a lot of quality people working in R&D and the speedway department and other places -- championship-winning crew chiefs like Todd and Jimmy –- and we just had some opportunities to mix things up a little bit and see if we can get the team heading in the direction we think it needs to be headed in."

Power Rankings after New Hampshire: