Days after winning his 14th Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race with driver Matt Kenseth as crew chief, Jason Ratcliff is expected to lead incoming full-time NASCAR XFINITY Series Christopher Bell next season at Joe Gibbs Racing, sources tell CATCHFENCE.com.
Motorsport.com first reported the story.
An official announcement is expected this week.
Ratcliff is no stranger to success in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. In 2009, he led Cup Series champion Kyle Busch to the XFINITY Series title with nine wins, 11 runner-up finishes, 25 top-five and 2,698 laps led.
After seven years being the leader for the No. 18 XFINITY program at JGR, Ratcliff was announced to replace Greg Zipadelli as the crew chief of the No. 20 Cup car driven by then Joey Logano for the 2012 season.
When Kenseth arrived at JGR, they enjoyed almost immediate success in 2013 winning six races together and leading over 9,500 laps before finishing second in the standings to Jimmie Johnson.
Since then, they have earned eight more victories and earned a spot in the 2017 Cup Series Playoffs but were eliminated in the cut-off race at Kansas Speedway in Oct., after the team violated the damaged vehicle policy in a Lap 198 accident.
Kenseth announced two weeks ago that he does not plan to race in the Cup Series next season after the team announced this summer that Erik Jones will move from Furniture Row Racing to JGR and pilot the No. 20 Toyota Camry next year with crew chief Chris Gayle.
Before being a crew chief in XFINITY, the Sumter, S.C. native earned his placement in the sport as a crew member for Sadler Racing in 1995. Four years later, he became crew chief at Brewco Motorsports for driver Casey Atwood.
Overall, the 49-year-old has 351 XFINITY Series races as crew chief with 36 wins, 19 poles, 104 top-five and 175 top-10 finishes.
During his 11-year tenure, his greatest success came with Busch but also captured checkered flags with Jamie McMurray and Denny Hamlin.
His last triumph in XFINITY came in 2011 with Busch at the helm, while his last appearance as crew chief occurred the same year with then JGR driver Ryan Truex at Chicagoland Speedway.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
