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Tag: Bruce Schlicker

  • Kaulig Racing reveals driver-crew chief pairing for 2024 Xfinity Series season

    Kaulig Racing reveals driver-crew chief pairing for 2024 Xfinity Series season

    Kaulig Racing took to social media to reveal its driver-crew chief pairing that features a full shuffling of crew chief assignments alongside new and familiar drivers towards its three-car operation for the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season.

    First off, Kevin Walter joins the Kaulig organization to serve as a crew chief for the first time in his career and for the No. 11 Chevrolet Camaro entry that will be piloted by Josh Williams in 2024. Walter joins Kaulig after previously serving as an engineer for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series and as a Cup Series crew chief for five races while paired with Michael McDowell and Leavine Family Racing in 2015. He spent this past season as an engineer for Josh Berry and the No. 8 JRM team. Like Walter, his driver, Williams, is a newcomer at Kaulig, a team he joins after making 186 series career starts to date (2016-23). He spent this past season as an Xfinity competitor for DGM Racing, where he ended up in 21st place in the final driver’s standings and has both 11 top-10 career finishes and an average-finishing result of 22.7 to date.

    Meanwhile, Alex Yontz will return to Kaulig for a fifth season as he will work atop the No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro entry team that will be piloted by veteran AJ Allmendinger. Yontz, a former racer turned crew chief from Walnut Cove, North Carolina, has eight Xfinity victories as a crew chief to date, including three this past season with Allmendinger twice (Circuit of the Americas in March & Nashville Superspeedway in June) and Kyle Larson once (Darlington Raceway in May) while working atop Kaulig’s No. 10 pit box. For 2024, he will be paired with Allmendinger, a 17-time Xfinity race winner who returns to the series amid a one-year absence, where he spent the previous season in the Cup Series at Kaulig and won at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course last October.

    Lastly, Bruce Schlicker also returns for a fifth season at Kaulig as he will work atop the No. 97 Chevrolet Camaro entry team that will be piloted by newcomer Shane van Gisbergen. Schlicker, who holds both a Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from West Virginia University, has seven Xfinity victories as a crew chief to date, including five with Allmendinger in 2022 and one this past season with Chandler Smith that occurred at Richmond Raceway last April. The upcoming season presents a new pairing for Schlicker as he will work with van Gisbergen, a three-time Supercars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, who won in his Cup Series debut at the Chicago Street Course last July and is set to campaign in his first campaign within NASCAR’s top three national touring series for the 2024 Xfinity circuit. The Australian will also compete as a part-time Cup Series competitor for Trackhouse Racing, the team which van Gisbergen won with at Chicago.

    The 2024 season is set to mark Kaulig Racing’s ninth consecutive season in the Xfinity Series and fourth fielding three full-time entries. Through a combined 524 starts, the organization has notched 23 victories, 15 poles, 121 top-five results, 274 top-10 results, 2,789 laps led. The team has also notched two Cup Series victories in a combined 158 career starts. Having placed at least one entry in the Xfinity Series Playoffs since the team’s and Playoff’s inception since 2016, Kaulig remains in pursuit of its first NASCAR national touring series championship.

    Kaulig Racing’s crew chief lineup for its NASCAR Cup Series operations, including its plans for the No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team that still remains vacant along for Jason Trinchere, who served as the crew chief for Kaulig’s No. 11 entry in the Xfinity Series, remains to be determined.

    With Kaulig Racing’s driver-crew chief pairing for the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season set, the team’s upcoming season campaign commences at Daytona International Speedway for the United Rentals 300. The event is scheduled to occur on February 17, 2024, at 5 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Kaulig Racing finalizes crew chief lineup for 2023 NASCAR season

    Kaulig Racing finalizes crew chief lineup for 2023 NASCAR season

    Kaulig Racing took to social media to reveal its driver-crew chief pairing for the upcoming NASCAR Xfinity Series season that is nine days away from commencing. For this season, all three Xfinity crew chiefs that feature Bruce Schlicker, Jason Trinchere and Alex Yontz will remain with their respective Chevrolet Camaro entries.

    Yontz, a five-time race-winning crew chief who swapped from Kaulig’s No. 11 to 10 entry late during the previous season, will remain atop the No. 10 pit box that will serve as the team’s “all-star” entry and be piloted by multiple competitors. Justin Haley will be driving the No. 10 Chevrolet Camaro for the Xfinity season opener at Daytona International Speedway while former Xfinity champion Austin Dillon will make his first start of the season with Kaulig at Auto Club Speedway in late February. In addition, veteran AJ Allmendinger will be making select Xfinity starts alongside his full-time Cup Series duties with Kaulig, beginning at Circuit of the Americas in March.

    Meanwhile, Trinchere, who commenced the previous season as the crew chief of the No. 10 entry before transitioning to Kaulig’s No. 11 entry, will be remaining with the No. 11 Chevrolet Camaro team to crew chief Daniel Hemric, who returns for a second full-time stint at Kaulig. Trinchere has five Xfinity career victories to his resume, all of which occurred in 2021 with Allmendinger as the duo made the Playoffs before finishing in fourth place in the final standings. Hemric, the 2021 Xfinity Series champion, is coming off his first season at Kaulig, where he achieved a pole, three top-five results, 14 top-10 results, an average-finishing result of 15.6 and an Xfinity Playoff berth before being eliminated from title contention during the Round of 12 and finishing in ninth place in the final driver’s standings.

    Lastly, Schlicker will return as the crew chief of the No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro entry that is set to be piloted by Chandler Smith, who will embark in his first full-time campaign in the Xfinity circuit and compete for the Rookie-of-the-Year title. Schlicker has six Xfinity victories to his resume, with his first occurring at Talladega Superspeedway in 2021 with Jeb Burton before notching five with Allmendinger during the previous season. Smith, the 2021 Craftsman Truck Series Rookie-of-the-Year recipient, graduates to the Xfinity Series following two full-time seasons in the Truck circuit with Kyle Busch Motorsports, where he notched a total of five victories and is coming off a third-place result in last year’s championship standings. He also made his first three Xfinity starts in 2022 with Sam Hunt Racing, where he notched a career-best seventh-place result at Homestead-Miami Speedway in October.

    The trio of Xfinity Series crew chiefs finalize Kaulig Racing’s full crew chief lineup that will also see Matt Swinderski and Trent Owens remaining as Cup Series crew chiefs for the team’s Nos. 16 and 31 entries, respectively. Justin Haley will be returning for a second full-time Cup stint at Kaulig in the No. 31 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 while Allmendinger returns to full-time Cup competition for the first time since 2018 in the No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

    The 2023 season is set to mark Kaulig Racing’s eighth season in the Xfinity Series and third fielding three full-time entries. Through a combined 425 career starts, the organization has notched 19 victories, nine poles, 100 top-five results, 223 top-10 results and 2,145 laps led. Having placed at least one entry in the Xfinity Series Playoffs since its inception, the organization continues to pursue its first NASCAR championship.

    Kaulig Racing’s 2023 Xfinity Series season is set to commence at Daytona International Speedway next Saturday, February 18, at 5 p.m. ET on FS1.