Hendrick Motorsports names interim Cup Series crew chiefs

All four HMS Cup teams were penalized Wednesday by NASCAR for modifying hood louvers (vents) on their respective cars, an issue that was discovered prior to practice last weekend at Phoenix Raceway.

Among the penalties were the suspension for four races of all four teams’ crew chiefs. While HMS is appealing the penalty, it has elected not to ask for a deferral of the suspensions and is going to begin having those affected sit out this weekend at Atlanta.

HMS named the following replacements on Thursday: Brian Campe for the No. 24 of William Byron, Greg Ives for the No. 48 of Alex Bowman, Kevin Meendering for Kyle Larson and Tom Gray for Josh Berry/Chase Elliott in the No. 9.

All four have engineering backgrounds.

Ives is Bowman’s former crew chief, Meendering is competition development manager, Campe is team technical director and Gray is an engineer that has worked in the shop.

This week is Berry’s third start in substitute for Elliott in the No. 9. Elliott is recovering from a broken left leg suffered in a snowboarding accident earlier this month.

If HMS wins its appeal, or the penalties are reduced, the crew chiefs could return to the track the next race.

Kaulig Racing also received a similar penalty for the same infraction and is expected to appeal as well. As of Thursday, it had made no decision on an interim crew chief.

Four of the five teams were docked 100 driver points, 100 owner points, 10 playoff points, the crew chiefs were suspended four races and each fined $100,000.

The No. 9 team received the same penalties except no driver point reduction as Berry is a fulltime competitor in the Xfinity Series and does not accumulate Cup points.