TeamBlueOval
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Number of posts : 1919
Location : VA
Registration date : 2009-01-14
 | | Subject: PK returns to Cup at car chief for Edwards Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:20 pm | |
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- DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Roush Fenway Racing driver Carl Edwards will start the new Sprint Cup season with an old friend. Pierre Kuettel, who served as car chief for Edwards’ Cup team before becoming his crew chief in what is now known as the Nationwide Series, will return to the No. 99 Cup team for 2009.
Kuettel will serve as car chief along with Jason Myers, last season’s car chief.
“Pierre came out, and we won a championship in the Nationwide Series together, and then Drew [Blickensderfer] became my crew chief,” Edwards said at NASCAR’s Preseason Thunder Fan Fest at Daytona International Speedway. “P.K. looked at his options and said, ‘Hey, I'd like to be the car chief.’ … We had so much success with P.K. on that team in 2005, I think having him come back and do this job is going to be a huge addition.
“At the same time we didn't lose Jason Myers. He's going to stay there, and I think for two guys to do that and make moves in a sport that from the outside would appear like downward moves so that we can go achieve a championship in the Cup series, I'm so proud of those guys, so I'm so excited about it.”
Edwards said Kuettel was the “best car chief in the garage” before he moved to the Busch Series team for the start of the 2006 season. But Brad Parrott left the team, and Kuettel took over. Kuettel and Edwards won the 2007 Busch championship before Blickensderfer took over midway through last year.
“If I understand correctly there was not a full-time crew chiefing job for P.K. [at Roush Fenway],” Edwards said. “I'm assuming he could have gone anywhere else and crew chiefed for anyone else anywhere in the garage, but he came back and did this car chiefing thing again.
“I'm sure he's probably better now, and I will bet you that probably his job is not too secure with me because if another crew chiefing job [came open] he's probably at the top of the list to go somewhere else in the organization, but for now we've got him and I'm really happy about it.”
Edwards finished second in the Cup points standings in 2008, coming short after winning the most races in the series, nine.
But though he had a spectacular season, it ended in disappointment. And now he and the No. 99 team are hungrier than ever.
“It's a huge understatement, man,” Edwards said. “The only good thing about the finish of last season, and the thing that made it palatable was winning those last two races, winning the Nationwide race and winning the Cup race.
“It's no fun to watch somebody celebrate the championship when you're second, but it was a little easier from victory lane. I know that we finished strong enough, and yes, it is motivating to have finished so close.” ~Scene Daily~ | |
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