Gibson will return to Stewart-Haas UPDATES: Danica Patrick's crew chief is not going anywhere. Tony Gibson
tweeted on Saturday afternoon that he has a contract extension with Stewart-Haas Racing. Gibson came on board as crew chief for Patrick for the last two races during her 10-race partial Sprint Cup schedule in 2012. Since then, he's been the only crew chief she's had in her two full-time seasons in NASCAR's top series. With Gibson, Patrick won the Coors Light Pole Award for the season-opening Daytona 500 in 2013. Together, they have four top-10 finishes together and he has overseen Danica's gradual growth this season. Gibson has three Sprint Cup victories, all atop the pit box for Ryan Newman from 2010-12 during that driver's tenure with Stewart-Haas. He made his crew chief debut in NASCAR's top series at the 1994 season finale for veteran Jimmy Hensley. Gibson has also worked with Michael Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin among others.(
NASCAR Illustrated)(10-19-2014)
UPDATE: Tony Gibson is keeping the band together - but that might not include Danica Patrick. For more than a dozen seasons, the veteran crew chief has been supported by the same cast of racers that were assembled at Dale Earnhardt Inc. - and have survived through driver and ownership changes. Gibson has been at Stewart-Haas Racing since the beginning. Although he was originally assigned to Ryan Newman and the #39 team, Gibson was named crew chief for Patrick in her penultimate race of 2012 and has been with her ever since. While there has been distinct improvement in her second full season in the Sprint Cup Series, rumors circulated last month that Patrick might be shopping for a new crew chief. "That's for Stewart-Haas and them to figure out," Gibson said. "I told them when I signed up, I'll do whatever they need me to do - wherever I need to be placed that they think I can do the best job, that's what I'll do. I don't think any of that has been decided as far as I know. I know they'll work on all that stuff and decide who needs to be placed where, for the best, and what makes the most sense for our company. My deal isn't for one particular driver. It's where I can be the most beneficial for the company and that's kind of where we left it."
Still, team owner Gene Haas believes that his teams could benefit from restructuring. Despite both #41-Kurt Busch and #4-Kevin Harvick qualifying for Chase and posting four wins between them, he's not pleased with the results. "Kurt is a unique driver," Haas said. "He has a lot of passion for what he does. That kind of driver requires some special members to make it work and I don't feel we have the right combination. So we're looking at that and make some changes on that team to make it work better. We're really not happy. That team should have done better. Kevin Harvick's team should have done better, too. He's been fast all year long, seven or eight poles, leading a huge amount of laps, but we haven't won as many races as we should. So, I think there's a little bit of evaluation with all the teams, but that's pretty common."(
Motorsport)(10-21-2014)
UPDATE 2: Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Danica Patrick and Kurt Busch will swap teams and crew chiefs beginning with the Nov. 2 Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. An official announcement of the change could come as early as Wednesday, sources said. SHR officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On Saturday, Tony Gibson, who has served as the only crew chief Patrick has had as a fulltime Cup series driver, signed a contract extension with SHR but the organization would not specify what his role was to be in the future. Beginning at Texas, crew chief Daniel Knost and the members of Busch's current #41 team will move over to Patrick's #10. Gibson, along with the members of Patrick's current #10 team, will move to Busch's #41 team.(
Charlotte Observer)(10-22-2014)