February 17th, 2010 
T.C. It was announced Wednesday that effective immediately, Todd Parrott would be replacing Drew Blickensderfer as crew chief for Matt Kenseth. The Crown Royal team finished eighth at Daytona, and I think the move has surprised some fans and maybe even some media folks. But with what happened last season, and what it took the 17 team to finish eighth at Daytona, the move might not be so shocking.
It’s been well documented that Kenseth and Blickensderfer got off to one hell of a start in 2009. In their first two races together, the duo scored two wins; Daytona and California. After those first two though, the team struggled for most of the rest of the season and failed to make the Chase. It was the first time in the Chase era that Kenseth wasn’t a part of NASCAR’s playoffs.
Fast forward to the 2010 season and this weekend’s Daytona 500. In the race he’d won just one year earlier, Kenseth struggled mightily with the handling of his car. He did however manage to bring home a top ten finish with the aid of a few green-white-checkered restarts and some good pit crew work. But, as they say, it was no picnic.
Over the course of the race, the 17 team made a number of changes to the car to help the handling including wedge adjustments, air pressure, track bar, a shim change, spring rubbers, and finally, a shock change! Not exactly how you hope one of these races goes.
In the Cup Series, especially for a team that expects to contend for the Championship every year, the setup of the car has got to be pretty close when the green flag drops. To make that many changes during the race, including two new front shocks is not good. By the time Sunday rolls around, the setup should only require small tweaks to keep up with the changing conditions during the race. Wholesale changes, like those that it took to get the Crown Royal Ford competitive, make Blickensderfer look incompetent.
I believe last year’s performances, together with how the Daytona 500 played out for Kenseth & Co. spelled the end for Blickensderfer. It was the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back.” Something tells me the meeting with Mr. Roush this week was not so pleasant. And crew chief changes after a situation like this are not necessarily something new for “The Cat in the Hat.”
The whole thing really is a shame too, because as bad as it looks for Blickensderfer, he is not an incompetent crew chief. You don’t win in the Nationwide Series and the Cup Series for Jack Roush if you don’t know what you’re doing. But obviously something just wasn’t clicking between driver and crew chief and it was time to make a change.
This weekend at California Speedway
While this weekend’s stop in Fontana, CA is usually not an anticipated one for fans and the teams (see California Doesn’t Deserve A Cup Date), I think this Sunday’s Cup race will be an intriguing one to watch.
The Daytona 500 is always a bit of a crap shoot, and often, teams that might not be contenders can find a way to run well. You can thank the restrictor plates for that.
But this race should be a fairly good litmus test for who might really be strong this year. Plenty of teams think they’ve made the necessary changes to compete again (see RCR, RFR) and this weekend will be their first opportunity show it.
California will be the first of many speedway races that will be run this season, and it’s tracks like this that will make or break a driver’s season. If you can’t run well at places like this, you can’t expect to finish well in the points.
Is Dale Jr. actually on the rise? Will the down teams from last year come back? Will Jimmie run away with a fifth straight Cup? Sunday’s Auto Club 500 will be our first opportunity to start piecing together the puzzle that is the 2010 season.
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Given that a bunch of cars don’t get it right at the beginning of a given race, I would have been inclined to give Blickensderfer points for getting it right over the course of the race and not having thrown in the towel.
that is, unless the setup they ended up with was a setup Blickensderfer was advised to use at the start and he chose not to for a reason nobody at Roush could figure out… but even then, I’d give him credit for admitting the setup wasn’t working and changing to something more appropriate.
and what was going on with smokes car. They were working on it all day??
Lets Hope Todd can get Matt on track again.
I used to what Kenseth at Maddison International Speedway, when he was “Matt the brat Kenseth”
I find it really astonishing that after only six years of the chase, there is only ONE driver who has been in it every year. We keep seeing the same guys at or near the top every year, but only Johnson has been there every year.
Why wouldn’t Jack wait until a couple of weeks before sending Blick to R&D? Is that the same as being banished to Siberia?
The move for RFR to put Parrott in as crew chief is a good one, but Drew is a good crew chief, isn’t there another place he can beside RFR R&D?
As for California Speedway, the racing use to be entertaining, but over the last few years it just hasn’t been. I believe that California only needs one Cup Series date, NASCAR fans just are not interested, but with one date and not so close to Las Vegas date and not Phoenix’s Cup date neither, the track could survive.
By the way, how many press releases has the NASCAR insider received from California Speedway? I love the PR stuff that I receive, it keep me up to date, but all of the PR stuff from California Speedway is over kill, its a turn off.
As a Kurt Busch fan, I wish that Roush had fired Blickersdeffernerderis at the end of last year. The Blue Deuce might have won the 500 with better calls from the box….like not pitting when everyone doesn’t.