Notebook: RMM and JGR announce new crew chiefs; NASCAR Scene cuts back staff
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Jason Smith
Getty Images for NASCAR
By Kyle Ocker
Sprint Cup Series beat reporter
Gene Nead will become Mike Skinner’s new crew chief for 2010 in the Camping World Truck Series, Randy Moss Motorsports announced today. Nead takes the place of Eric Phillips who left the team after last season.
“We were obviously surprised when Eric Phillips left,” team owner David Dollar said. “Eric had been at Randy Moss Motorsports for a long time and was a big part of this organization. That said, we feel extremely fortunate to have found someone of Gene’s caliber to take over. We sat down as a team and gave a lot of thought to what we wanted and needed in a leader. I talked to several candidates who are really talented racers and would have done a great job, but ultimately we felt like Gene was the guy who would be the right fit for this team. He’s been around for a long time and is a fierce competitor. He’s really got the whole package and that’s exactly what we were looking for. He’s shown he has what it takes to win a truck series championship, and I definitely think the Nead/Skinner pairing will be a force to be reckoned with right from the start.”
While Nead has held a crew chief position in every major NASCAR series, a majority of his success has come in the Camping World Truck Series in the form of 11 top-five and 15 top-ten finishes in 2005 to win the championship with Ted Musgrave.
Most recently, he worked for JTG Daugherty Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing last year as the crew chief for Marcos Ambrose and Michael Waltrip in the Sprint Cup Series. The native of Philadelphia, Penn. started his first crew chiefing job in 1996 with driver/owner Phil Parsons.
“My heart lies in the truck series,” Nead said. “It’s where I’ve experienced the most success and where I’ve had the most fun. I’m excited about the opportunity to work with Mike Skinner and everyone at Randy Moss Motorsports. There’s no question Skinner can drive a truck – he’s proven it year after year. It’s also clear that RMM has the resources to get the job done. It will be up to me to make sure Mike has everything he needs to be successful, and I’m looking forward to getting started.”
Kevin Kidd to crew chief JGR’s No. 20 Nationwide team
Joe Gibbs Racing announced today that Kevin Kidd would replace Dave Rogers, who is moving to crew chief Kyle Busch in the Cup Series this year, as the crew chief for the team’s No. 20 Toyota team in the Nationwide Series.
Kidd comes over to the team from Richard Petty Motorsports, where he spent the last four years in an engineering role, either with Elliott Sadler and the No. 19 team or most recently in the Vehicle Dynamics Department. In 2008, Kidd also worked as the crew chief for Chase Miller’s Nationwide Series efforts.
“We’re excited to have Kevin join our team here at JGR,” Joe Gibbs Racing President J.D. Gibbs said. “We already have a great team in place and Kevin will provide great leadership to them. His experience and knowledge should help keep us up front where our sponsors deserve to be each week.”
The No. 20 team is still in the process of finalizing their schedule for next year. In the press release, the team says Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Matt DiBenedetto are expected to share the ride. GameStop, Interstate Batteries, SportClips, and Pizza Ranch will also take turns sponsoring the car for the season.
Popular site and magazine making major cuts
The economy is starting to effect one of NASCAR’s largest media outlets as a reported two-thirds of NASCAR Scene‘s staff lost their jobs today. Among those cut were Jeff Gluck and Mike Hembree.
Gluck confirmed his newly unemployed status earlier today on his Twitter account saying, “Dear Friends…I am sorry to inform you I just lost my job! Not sure of the next step right now. Let me know if you hear of any openings!”
Also getting cut is Steve Waid, who also posted on Twitter about being apart of the layoff saying, “Hate to go out, but I had a helluva run at 30 years. I’ll be around.”
Once the cutbacks were announced, the staff who were let go also had to hand in their keys and computers before being escorted out of the building.
The firing came somewhat as a shock and has other media members, like MikeMulhern.net, speculating that the site/magazine is shutting down. Details were still unavailable at press time on the actual number fired.
NASCAR Scene is owned by the Street and Smith’s company. Writers often appear online at SceneDaily.com or in NASCAR Illustrated. Street and Smith’s also owns sports website and magazine, the Sporting News.
