(Sports Network) - Joe Gibbs Racing announced Tuesday that Kyle Busch will have a new crew chief for his No.18 Sprint Cup Series team after this weekend's race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Dave Rogers will replace Steve Addington for the final three Cup races this season -- Texas, Phoenix and Homestead.

Rogers is in his fourth season as crew chief with the No.20 JGR team in the Nationwide Series. He led the team to its first Nationwide owner's championship in 2008 with nine victories and 26 top-10 finishes. The team has won five races so far this year with driver Joey Logano. Rogers returns to the Cup Series after serving as Jason Leffler's crew chief with JGR's No.11 entry during the first half of the 2005 season.

Addington has been the crew chief for the No.18 team the previous five seasons. He guided Busch to eight victories in Busch's first year with the team last year.

Despite four wins so far in 2009, Busch failed to make the 12-driver field for this year's "Chase for the Sprint Cup" championship.

JGR will reassign Addington to another position following Talladega.

"We evaluate all of our teams on an ongoing basis and believe this is a change that will make the 18 team stronger as we prepare for next season," Joe Gibbs Racing president J.D. Gibbs said in a team statement. "We think highly of Steve and the job he has done, and we look forward to him remaining a part of the JGR family.

"Dave has proven himself a talented crew chief, and we think he will work well with Kyle. We hope that by making the move following this weekend's race at Talladega they can use the final three weeks of this season to begin working on communication and setups for the 2010 season."







Copyright 2009 The Sports Network
All rights reserved

 Email To Friend