NASCAR Cup Series

Martin led Childress turnaround

Published Nov. 30, 2010 12:00 a.m. ET

Larry McReynolds

Editor’s note: In anticipation of Friday’s Sprint Cup Series Awards Ceremony (9 p.m. ET on SPEED), the NASCAR on FOXSports.com team will be handing out their own awards throughout the week. Make sure to check every day as we celebrate the top performances of the 2010 season.

I’ll tell you folks, I struggled to pick a winner for the Crew Chief of the Year category. I went in a little different direction with my selection, though. I don’t want to short change Chad Knaus, who won a record fifth-consecutive Sprint Cup championship this year with Jimmie Johnson, but my pick is Gil Martin.

When I look at the turnaround that the entire Richard Childress Racing organization made from last year to this year, and for Martin’s No. 29 team to win three races, lead the points for a huge portion of the first 26 races, have nine top-10 finishes in the 10 races that make up the Chase for the Sprint Cup portion of the season and keep swinging until the bitter end, that is why I went with him as the crew chief of the year in NASCAR.

One moment that sticks in my mind came during the second-to-last race of the year, at Phoenix International Raceway. To make the call that Martin made to have Kevin Harvick pit for fuel and try to stretch it until the end not only helped his No. 29 team overcome a late-race problem, but it also kept them in title contention just when you thought their hopes were dashed.

But as I said, this was certainly no easy selection. Several crew chiefs come to mind when talking about the best of 2010.

Obviously, Knaus was at the top of the list, and so was Mike Ford, crew chief for the No. 11 team of Denny Hamlin. Not only did that No. 11 bunch win a series-high eight races, but Ford’s team also had to go through dealing with a driver that had knee surgery in the middle of the year.

Other honorable mentions in this category include Mike Shiplett with AJ Allmendinger and the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports team. Allmendinger and Co. had a lot of strong runs this season – including two top-five and eight top-10 finishes – and they did it in the shadows of extreme turmoil at Richard Petty Motorsports, to the point where you didn’t know toward the end of the season whether your hauler was going to be able to go to the next race!

But you know what? Shiplett, No. 9 crew chief Kenny Francis, No. 98 crew chief Slugger Labbe and No. 19 crew chief Todd Parrott kept their heads down and kept working throughout this entire ordeal at RPM. All four crew chiefs and their respective teams deserve our respect.