Entering the regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway, Shane van Gisbergen sits on the Chase bubble, 31 points above Ryan Preece.
Trackhouse Racing has made the decision to swap nearly every member of the over-the-wall pit crew for the No. 97 Chevrolet, replacing all but the fueler with members from the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet of A.J. Allmendinger.
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Allmendinger’s team leases and sources its pit crew from Trackhouse, so they were the obvious choice for such a change. The No. 16 pit crew has been one of the higher-ranked crews on pit road this year.
It’s worth noting that Van Gisbergen fell outside the top ten after a slow stop at the end of Stage 1 at New Hampshire, never truly recovering from the mishap and finishing 20th.
Trackhouse replaced the jackman for Ross Chastain last year at the start of the playoffs, but swapping nearly every member of the pit crew is certainly notable.
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Should Van Gisbergen make the Chase, he will be the only Trackhouse driver to do so. And while he has a 31-point buffer in the driver standings, it’s far closer in the owner standings. The No. 60 RFK Racing Ford is only six points behind the No. 97, as an intentional wrecking penalty applied to Preece after Texas did not impact the team.
William Byron will also have two new crew members this weekend, but that’s because of a suspension of his regular jackman and rear tire changer after a wheel disconnected last weekend. Those crew members are coming from Alex Bowman’s No. 48.
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