Turner
Motorsports has announced changes within two of its NASCAR Nationwide Series teams.
Effective
immediately, the No. 30 and No. 38 teams will swap their entire crews,
including crew chiefs, in an effort to evaluate performance and prepare for the
2013 season.
Trent Owens, who
has led James Buescher and Nelson Piquet Jr. to NNS victories this season, will
take over as crew chief for the No. 38 Great Clips team with drivers Kasey
Kahne and Brad Sweet. A former driver himself, Owens is a long-time fixture in
the NASCAR garage. Over the years, the Darlington, S.C., native has been
successful working with a variety of drivers with different levels of
experience and has visited Victory Lane with a number of drivers, including
Buescher, Piquet. Jr., Mark Martin, Dave Blaney and Reed Sorenson.
Mike Hillman
Jr., who joined the organization this season to lead Miguel Paludo's efforts in
the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, will take charge as crew chief of the
No. 30 team, which campaigns a number of drivers. Hillman has served as a NCWTS
crew chief since 2005, amassing two championships, 19 wins, 81 top-five and 107
top-10 finishes in 185 races atop the pit box. Hillman Jr.'s most recent NNS
event as crew chief came with Paludo at Road America in June of this year.
The changes are
part of an ongoing process by Turner Motorsports, which is credited with five
NCWTS and six NNS wins since September, 2010, to gauge performance and ensure
that the right people are in the right place to achieve race wins and
championships.
"We have a
responsibility to all of our marketing partners to consistently be doing
everything we can do to make our programs stronger," said team owner Steve
Turner. "This personnel change is an effective way to evaluate each team's
strengths and to build upon them as we prepare to contend for a Nationwide
Series championship in 2013."
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