NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) rookie Rico Abreu will have a new crew chief for Saturday afternoon’s freds’ 250 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Longtime ThorSport Racing employee and veteran crew chief Bud Haefele will serve as interim crew chief for Abreu and the No. 98 Safelite AutoGlass Toyota Tundra replacing Doug George who is no longer with the organization.
Haefele served as crew chief for teammate Matt Crafton at ThorSport for a span of seven seasons from 2005 – 2011 and called the 2015 NCWTS season finale for NASCAR Next alumnus Jesse Little.
Haefele has called 180 races to date, since 2004, 175 of them with Crafton. His success includes two wins with Crafton at Charlotte Motor Speedway (2008) and Iowa Speedway (2011), six poles, 42 top-five and 96 top-10 finishes.
The industry veteran has 10 starts at Talladega with one top-five and three top-10 runs, including a track-best of fourth in 2010.
Abreu, the two-time Chili Bowl Nationals winner is looking to Haefele to resurrect his rookie season in trucks. Despite enormous success on dirt, including the 2014 USAC Midget National championship, the St. Helena, Calif. native has struggled in his freshman season of truck competition.
After 18 races, the 24-year-old is 14th in points with one top-five (third at Eldora Speedway) and four top-10 finishes. Following the dirt race at Eldora, the 2013 USAC Gold Crown Midget Nationals winner finished sixth at Pocono Raceway the following race, his last top-10 finish on the tour, seven races ago.
He led his first lap of competition at Charlotte in May and carries an average finish of 16.7 with five races remaining. Despite mid-pack results, the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East winner has finished in 16 of the 18 races with over 98 percent of the laps completed this season.
The Californian returns to restrictor plate racing this weekend after making his third career NCWTS start at Daytona International Speedway earlier this year, where he was competitive after qualifying 16th, but finished 29th after being involved in a Lap 93 crash.
Abreu heads to Talladega with some momentum following a two-week break where he took his Abreu Vineyards 410 Winged Sprint Car to Victory Lane at Eldora Speedway, winning the 30-lap “Sprintacular” on Sat., Oct. 8 at the famed half-mile clay oval.
George will return to the track this weekend working with Hattori Racing Enterprises (No. 81 Toyota Tundra) with driver Ryan Truex. The younger brother of Sprint Cup racer Martin Truex Jr. finished second in the season-opening NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona this past February.
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