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Tag: Brian Campe

  • Legacy Motor Club announces crew chief changes prior to 2024 season’s conclusion

    Legacy Motor Club announces crew chief changes prior to 2024 season’s conclusion

    Legacy Motor Club announced a change to its current crew chief lineup in the closing stretches of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.

    Dave Elenz, who was in his third season working as a crew chief for the No. 43 Toyota Camry XSE team piloted by Erik Jones, has parted ways with the organization. Ben Beshore, who was working as a crew chief for the team’s No. 42 Toyota Camry XSE entry piloted by John Hunter Nemechek, will now become Jones’ new crew chief. Meanwhile, Brian Campe, who was recently appointed the team’s new technical director, will assume the crew chief responsibilities for Nemechek on an interim role.

    Amid the announcement, Cal Wells, III, the CEO of Legacy Motor Club, released a statement:

    “LEGACY M.C. and Dave Elenz have parted ways, and the organization would like to thank Dave for his stewardship of the No. 43 over the past three seasons.”

    Elenz, a two-time championship-winning crew chief in the Xfinity Series with 15 career victories, all occurring with JR Motorsports, joined Legacy Motor Club when it was branded as Petty GMS Motorsports and fielding Chevrolets in 2022. By then, it was the first time where Elenz was promoted to the Cup Series division to work as a crew chief. Paired up with Erik Jones and the No. 43 team, the duo won the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, which marked Elenz’s first Cup Series victory as a crew chief and Jones’ second triumph in the crown-jewel event. They would proceed to record a total of 12 top-10 results and finish in 18th place in the final standings.

    Elenz, who called his 100th Cup Series event as a crew chief this past weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, recorded one victory, five top-five results and 21 top-10 results while working with two competitors overall. With one top-five result and two top-10 results recorded throughout the 2024 season, Jones and the No. 43 team are currently ranked in 30th place in the standings. Jones was absent for two races between late April and early May after suffering a broken compression fracture in his lower back following a multi-car wreck at Talladega Superspeedway in late April, which resulted with Craftsman Truck Series competitor Corey Heim filling in for Jones.

    No. 42
    Photo by Adam Lovelace for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    Meanwhile, John Hunter Nemechek, who returned to the Cup Series this season after spending the previous three seasons scaling back down to the Truck and Xfinity divisions to regain his competitive form, is ranked in 34th place in the 2024 standings on the strength of three top-10 results. The 2024 season also marks crew chief Ben Beshore’s return to the Cup Series after he spent the 2023 season working with Nemechek at Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series, where the duo won a season-high seven races and made the Championship 4 before settling in fourth place in the final standings. Previously, Beshore spent the 2021 and 2022 seasons working as a crew chief for Kyle Busch in the Cup Series.

    Jimmie Johnson, co-owner of Legacy Motor Club, is also in his second season competing on a part-time basis in the team’s No. 84 Toyota entry. Through seven current starts, Johnson’s best on-track results are a pair of 28th-place finishes that occurred in the 66th running of the Daytona 500 in February and at Dover Motor Speedway in late April. Johnson, who competed in his first event with new crew chief Gene Wachtel after parting ways with Jason Burdett at Kansas Speedway in late September, is still scheduled to compete at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on October 20 and the season-finale event at Phoenix Raceway on November 10 before the 2024 season concludes.

    With the crew changes made, Legacy Motor Club’s 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season continues with the upcoming Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, October 13, and air at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.

  • The Final Word – Monaco, and Indy, and Charlotte, Oh My!

    The Final Word – Monaco, and Indy, and Charlotte, Oh My!

    It was the biggest day in motorsports, starting with the streets of Monaco, where they have been racing since 1929. Then, to Indianapolis, where they have been logging 500 miles this time of year since 1911. Finally, the long way home, the World 600 at Charlotte for the boys and girl with fenders.

    Overseas, Nico Rosberg claimed the prize for the third straight year. It helps when it is handed to you. During a late caution, the dominant car of Lewis Hamilton was called in for fresh tires. He had thought Rosberg and those immediately behind him had done the same. They had not. Nice call, team. Thanks a bunch. Surprise, surprise, surprise, as Gomer Pyle used to say.

    Gomer’s creator, actor Jim Nabors, performed “Back Home Again in Indiana” for the final time last year, but Juan Pablo Montoya was back in Indianapolis. An early mishap cost the former NASCAR performer what passes for a rear fender on his open wheeled car, forcing him back to 30th. That set the stage for his charge through the pack. With just three laps to go, he made his pass for the lead and claimed the crown he first won back in 2000.

    They have been racing 600 miles at Charlotte on Memorial Day weekend since 1960, the longest NASCAR event of the season. Martin Truex Jr. would have been the story, had he won after leading 131 laps. He did not. Kurt Busch led the way for 118, but no suds for him, either. In fact, five other drivers led more than Carl Edwards, but it was the man from Missouri doing the back flip in the end as he led the final 21 to take his first of the season, 24th of his Cup career. It might still be a bit premature, but what the heck. Welcome to the Chase, Mr. Edwards.

    Welcome to the Hall of Fame, Bruton Smith. The 88-year old owner of the Charlotte track, along with seven others on the circuit, will be inducted as part of the class of 2016. Joining him will be two-time champ Terry Labonte, the legendary Curtis Turner, six-time Modified king Jerry Cook, and 1970 Cup champion Bobby Isaac.

    Landon Cassill was still running at the end of the race in Charlotte. For another hour, 41 minutes, and 49 seconds, he continued to run the 14 miles between the track and the Hall of Fame. This time, the only rubber on the road was on his sneakers. This sounds like something my sons might do. I, on the other hand, am much too smart…and fat…and old…for that.

    If you want to win the Indianapolis 500, spend some time in NASCAR. Montoya won his second after 278 races in Cup and the XFINITY series over parts of the previous nine seasons. His Indy lead engineer, Brian Campe, was on the box as a crew chief for 22 Nationwide races in 2009, including seven for Dale Earnhardt Jr. Not a bad apprenticeship.

    Jeff Gordon was at Indianapolis, drove the pace car before returning to North Carolina. After getting out of the car, he will head to the broadcast booth to join Mike Joy and Darrell Waltrip at FOX next season. I think they might be replacing the wrong guy, but maybe that is just me.

    So, what is next? The Monster Mile in Dover is slated for this Sunday, where everybody who has won there the past nine events also has claimed a Cup title along the way. In fact, over the past six years, the only non-champion to take the checkered flag there was Kyle Busch. Not a bad pick, come to think of it.