Crew chief Scott Graves is leaving Joe Gibbs Racing and will be replaced immediately by Dave Rogers, the team announced Tuesday.
Rogers has served as technical director for JGR’s Xfinity operation. He will be the crew chief for Daniel Suarez the rest of the season.
Rogers and Suarez worked together for five races in 2017, Suarez’s rookie year, before Rogers took a personal leave of absence. Graves had been Suarez’s crew chief since then.
Rogers has 18 career Cup wins while working with Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards at JGR.
Suarez was the only Joe Gibbs Racing driver not to make the Cup playoffs this season. He enters this weekend’s race at Talladega Superspeedway 18th in points.
I can't thank @JoeGibbsRacing enough for the last 3 years. Winning the Xfinity championship with @Daniel_SuarezG in 2016 is something I will always be proud of. It was a really tough decision to leave the company and all the great people that are there.
— Scott Graves (@scott_r_graves) October 10, 2018