Greg Ives, the current crew chief of JR Motorsports driver Chase Elliott in the Nationwide Series, has been announced as Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Sprint Cup crew chief at Hendrick Motorsports starting in 2015. Ives is replacing Steve Letarte, who switched from the #24 of Jeff Gordon to the #88 car in 2011, and is joining NBC as a commentator for their NASCAR coverage next year alongside Rick Allen and Jeff Burton. Letarte announced his transition from crew chief to commentator in January, a month before he and Earnhardt pulled off a win in the Daytona 500.
Ives was previously part of the engineering team of Jimmie Johnson at Hendrick from 2004 to 2010. At the tail end of the 2012 Nationwide season he became the crew chief for the #7 car driven by Regan Smith at JR Motorsports. Hendrick and JRM have had an alliance since 2008, when Earnhardt moved to Hendrick from Dale Earnhardt Inc., the team founded by his late father. Rick Hendrick said Ives was their "number-one choice" to replace Letarte.
Earnhardt has won three Cup races with Letarte: at Michigan in 2012, and this year at Daytona and Pocono, where the Cup Series is racing again on Sunday. Now, people will probably wonder whether Earnhardt can win with Ives has his new crew chief, and continue this peak in his racing career.
No comments:
Post a Comment