DARLINGTON, S.C. – While the pressure is on for the 16 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff contenders, Jeremy Bullins is facing a new challenge.
After two years of working with Cup newcomer Austin Cindric, Team Penske elected to swap the crew chiefs of the Nos. 2 and 21 at the end of the regular season. Brian Wilson rejoined Penske to work with Cindric. Bullins returned to Wood Brothers Racing on Monday, charged with the racing development of Harrison Burton.
For Bullins, who started his racing career with the Wood Brothers after graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering at North Carolina State University, it’s as if he never left.
“Yeah, it always seems kind of like you’re going home,” Bullins said of his third stint with the iconic No. 21 Ford. “It’s first place I worked, the first opportunity I got in the sport.
“So obviously, I take a lot of pride in representing them and trying to do the best we can for the 21 car.”
Bullins was first hired by Team Penske in 2011 to be crew chief on the No 22 Xfinity Series car. Four years later, he returned to the Wood Brothers as crew chief for Ryan Blaney. Blaney made tremendous strides in his second full season with the team. At Pocono Raceway in June 2017, he scored his first Cup win. Blaney finished a respectable ninth in the point standings that year.
Unlike Blaney during his tenure in the No. 21, Burton has endured a sophomore slump. The 22-year-old second-generation racer is currently 30th in the Cup standings. In 63 starts, Burton has one top five and four top 10s. His best result in 2023 is sixth at Darlington Raceway in the spring.
“We almost finished fifth,” Burton is quick to interject.
Still, for the pair to kick off their partnership at Darlington—one of the toughest tracks on the tour—should provide a solid test for the team.
“I loved working with Brian,” Burton said of his former crew chief. “Me and Brian got along really well. Maybe too well, I don’t know. Obviously, it was time for a change. I felt like it’s a good time to do it, too.
“Jeremy’s brought kind of a new look at things, a new intensity to things. Qualifying today wasn’t great (32nd), but our practice (14th) was good. I feel like we unloaded off the truck pretty well. Feel pretty good about our speed in race trim. Then hard to say, going out early and qualifying hurts us, right? So trying to sort through a bunch of new things and then on top of that, evaluate where we are.
“I feel like we’ll have a good race tomorrow. I feel really good about this track–one of my better tracks. Feel really good about our program, where we’re going. I just think it’s a good chance for us to kind of audit ourselves, look at ourselves in the mirror and kind of hit the reset button. From there, go and try and address the issues, see what was good, what wasn’t good, and have a new perspective about things and an open mind about things. I think that’ll kind of yield results in the long term.”
Bullins’ familiarity with the Penske-Wood Brothers technical alliance along with his comfort level with team owner Eddie and Len Wood should make the transition seamless.
“I hope so,” Bullins said. “I think that’s the goal, right? You can get a young early 20s Cup driver with some Xfinity experience and just try to support him and find the things that he needs to take the next step.”
After securing the Wood Brothers’ 99th Cup win with Blaney, what would it mean for Bullins to lead Burton to the 100th victory?
“I think that’s one of the biggest goals I have in life at the moment,” Bullins said. “I think 99 was really cool and a really big deal. One hundred would be way more cool than that.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
