Getting a jump start on the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season, Stewart Haas Racing announced Wednesday that it would shuffle its crew chief lineup for three of their four teams.
Mike Shiplett who steered Cole Custer to a banner year in the NASCAR Xfinity Series has been promoted to lead Custer as the new driver of the No. 41 Ford Mustang next season.
The dynamic duo of Custer and Shiplett amassed a career-high six poles, seven wins and a runner-up finish in the Xfinity Series championship standings this season.
Crew chief John Klausmeier and Mike “Buga” Bugarewicz will swap teams with Klausmeier moving to the No. 14 team with driver Clint Bowyer and Bugarewicz partnering with the No. 10 Smithfield team and driver Aric Almirola.
Champion crew chief Rodney Childers, who signed a contract extension with SHR this year will return as Kevin Harvick’s leader with the No. 4 team for the seventh straight year. Since their pairing in 2014, the duo has combined to earn 25 poles, 26 victories, 106 top-five and 153 top-10 efforts.
Harvick has also led a whopping 9,608 laps and made the Championship 4 at Homestead five of the last six years, winning the Cup Series championship in his inaugural 2014 season and finishing runner-up twice in 2015 and 2018 respectively.
“Our biggest asset at Stewart-Haas Racing is our people, and we strive to put each person in the best position to succeed,” said Greg Zipadelli, SHR’s vice president of competition.
“Our driver | crew chief pairings for next season reflect this ideology, and we believe this lineup provides the best opportunity to win every time we unload our Ford Mustangs at the race track.”
Klausmeier had been the No. 10 crew chief since 2018, where he and Almirola tallied 29 top-10 finishes, highlighted by a victory in October at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The pair made the NASCAR playoffs in each of their two seasons together, with Almirola finishing a career-best fifth in the 2018 standings.
Bugarewicz has led the No. 14 team since 2016, where he was Tony Stewart’s crew chief for his final NASCAR season before being paired with Bowyer in 2017.
Bugarewicz and Bowyer won two races in 2018 – March 26 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and June 10 at Michigan International Speedway. Their three-year run garnered 47 top-10s and two appearances in the NASCAR Playoffs.
Plans for Stewart Haas Racing’s NASCAR Xfinity Series program for 2020 have not been announced.
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