Joe Gibbs Racing announced late Wednesday that crew chief Dave Rogers will be stepping away from the No. 19 Toyota driven by Daniel Suarez effective immediately for an “an indefinite period of time.”
The team made the announcement in a short press release that named Scott Graves as crew chief. The team said a new permanent crew chief for the No. 18 Xfinity series team which Graves is vacating will be named at a later date.
Graves and Suarez have worked together before; the pair won the 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship. Graves was crew chief for Chris Buescher for his championship season the year prior.
Rogers was most recently crew chief for Carl Edwards. Edwards stepped away from NASCAR at the end of last season. Overall Rogers has 18 wins as a crew chief at the Cup level, including 13 with Kyle Busch from the end of 2010-2014 seasons; three others came with Edwards and two with Denny Hamlin.
Suarez is in his rookie season in the Cup series. He has two top-10 finishes, both seventh places, in the last two races.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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