Richard Childress Racing confirmed several NASCAR Sprint Cup crew chief moves Wednesday.
Long-time RCR crew chiefs Shane Wilson and Gil Martin have taken new assignments with the 14-time championship-winning organization. Wilson, who worked with Clint Bowyer this season, has been named crew chief for Kevin Harvick's No. 29 team. Martin, Harvick's 2011 crew chief, has been named director of team operations and will report to director of competition Kent Day.
"Kevin (Harvick) came to me after the Phoenix race a couple weeks ago and asked for a change in the leadership of his team for the 2012 season," said Richard Childress, president and CEO of Richard Childress Racing. "The expectations at RCR are to win championships so the decision was made to move Shane Wilson to the No. 29 Budweiser/Rheem/Jimmy Johns program. Shane did a great job for RCR in the Nationwide Series when he first got here, and built on that success the past three seasons with our No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper team, so we feel he will continue do a great job with the No. 29 team."
Wilson and Harvick previously worked together in 2006, earning 10 wins, 24 top-five and 31 top-10 finishes and won the Nationwide Series championship. The team's 824-point margin of victory is a series record.
"Shane is a good friend of mine and we had a lot of success together in the NASCAR Nationwide Series," Harvick said. "He has a lot of experience now in the Sprint Cup Series and I look forward to working with him again."
A team release stated that further personnel changes will be announced in the coming weeks.
