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NASCAR

New crew chief sparks Kenseth to strong start

By SceneDaily.com

Feb 24, 2009

Roush Fenway Racing co-owner Jack Roush and driver Matt Kenseth say new crew chief Drew Blickensderfer is one of the main reasons the No. 17 Ford team has gotten off to such a strong start in the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

Blickensderfer took over as crew chief from Chip Bolin in the offseason, and all Kenseth has done to start the Sprint Cup season is win both races staged thus far.

Kenseth was a surprise winner in the Daytona 500, taking the lead just before rain came that ultimately ended the race, but at Auto Club Speedway in California, the 2003 Cup champion didn’t need rain. He led the most laps, 84, and held off a determined late-race charge from four-time series champ Jeff Gordon.

Suddenly, a driver who couldn’t win in 2008 has done nothing but win in 2009. Why?

“Drew has brought magic to the team,” Roush said. “He comes from a family – his dad was a coach. He played real competitive sports in high school and things. So he knows how to build a team. He knows how to capitalize on the energy within a team.

“We needed that. We had all the right team with the right skill sets on the team; we just needed somebody to create the magic. Drew has done that. We had the same cars last year. Matt was the same guy that he was last year. He sure didn't learn anything over the winter because he didn't have a chance to drive these cars as much as normal.”

Blickensderfer was a basketball player and wrestler in high school, earning a wrestling scholarship to Indiana, where he was redshirted one year – and then transferred to Millikin University.

Blickensderfer worked as a crew chief in the Nationwide Series for three seasons before Kenseth decided he needed a change to his team. Robbie Reiser, Kenseth’s long-time crew chief, had become Roush Fenway’s general manager, and engineer Bolin was promoted to crew chief.

But Bolin didn’t prove to be a good fit, so he returned to his role as an engineer. Blickensderfer stepped in, and so far, the sailing has been impressively smooth.

“It feels pretty unbelievable to win the first two races,” Kenseth said. “… As soon as we got Drew in that spot [as crew chief], a week later, I had a super long talk with Chip. Everything was cool with Jack, and we worked everything out. I just had a really good feeling about it. I don't know why. I was more confident coming into this year than I have been probably in a lot of seasons.

“I just feel great about the group we have assembled. Everybody's having fun. Everybody's loose. Everybody's performing at the same time. I think that Drew has given the leadership and the spark they kind of need, and Chip has all the extra time to work on the cars and keep up with engineering and the data, sift through all that stuff. They've been able to work great together so far.”

Blickensderfer credits his background as a coach’s son and athlete for his leadership skills. Every person is different, Blickensderfer says, meaning you have to treat people differently.

But Blickensderfer also credits Reiser for setting the standard of excellence for the No. 17 team.

“He's ultimately the guy three years ago when I took over the 17 Nationwide car I tried to model myself after,” Blickensderfer said. “When you're across the shop from the 17, you looked at them as the ultimate team. I think even when they didn't win the championship after 2003, everybody still looked at them as, 'That's the team you want to be like.' They were the best on pit road. Seemed like they could change a spring faster than everybody else. You wanted to be like the 17.

“When I was able to work with Matt in the then-Busch side, I went and talked to Robbie a lot. I kind of hung around him, looked at the way he looked at people and the way he did things and tried to model myself [after that]. A lot of things that Robbie did, a lot of organizational skills, a lot of leadership skills that Robbie did, I tried to mold myself around.”