Stewart Cooper, former Crew Chief of Braun Racing's # 38 Toyota and driver Jason Leffler, has been named the new Crew Chief for Kyle Petty and his # 45 Dodge. He will take the reins of the team starting at Phoenix for the Subway Fresh Fit 500.
Cooper finds it an honor to work with the 45 team and he's committed to making the team competitve on a weekly basis.
"Stewart is that new breed of crew chief that couples a mechanical engineering education with a lot of practical at-track experience" Petty said. Because of his Nationwide Series success, General Manager Robbie Loomis has been trying to aquire Cooper for a long time.
Cooper replaces Billy Wilburn, who is now heading up the test team.
Simply replacing the crew chief will not make the team more competitive. The problems with the Petty Enterprises teams run much deeper than simple personnel issues and have been lingering for a long time. Kyle Petty hasn't been performing well for years and perhaps it is time to find out why that is.
Lack of sponsorship has made things difficult, money doesn't grow on trees and you can't be successful without the equipment to test and gain information. I hope that Robbie Loomis, Kyle and Richard all realize that you can't throw a band-aid on a gaping wound and hope that heals it.
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