| | | | | | NEW LEADER | Smith working with new but familiar crew chief this weekend | |
| | Lee Montgomery / SceneDaily.com Regan Smith will be working with a new crew chief for his No. 1 Dale Earnhardt Inc. Chevrolet this weekend, though Kevin Buskirk is not entirely unfamiliar with the rookie driver.
Buskirk, who replaces the released Doug Richert, led DEI’s test team, for which Smith has done a lot of driving.
“Kevin and I, we’ve got a lot of laps together,” Smith said. “He runs the test team, and I’ve been testing with him numerous times this year and got a level of comfort with him. Obviously, it’ll help me out going into it since I have worked with him before, and we’ll go forward with what’s going to be the next move.”
Buskirk is crew chief on an interim basis and has no plans to do it full time.
“I’ll be at Pocono on Tuesday morning as the test-team manager,” Buskirk said. “In the past when crew chiefs get suspended or they get fighting and they move crew chiefs around at any company, I’ve just been the person they go to to help out for a week or two, and I don’t mind doing that. I really have no aspirations of being a full-time crew chief.
“I love what I do, finding new ways to make the cars faster or lighter or whatever. I’m hoping that by next week they would have somebody permanent. I don’t know that.”
Smith wasn’t sure if DEI officials had a timetable for naming a permanent crew chief.
“Obviously, you want to get somebody in place as quick as possible,” Smith said. “Kevin can’t do it forever. We’re fortunate enough that he was in position and with the company where he could step in this weekend, and we’re thankful for that.
“But going forward in the future, I don’t know if there is a timetable or anything like that set. We’re going to try to all sit down and make the right decision.”
| | Posted May 24, 2008 , 12:49 am EST
Last Updated May 26, 2008 , 8:19 pm EST | | | | | | | | | | |
