Jamie McMurray gets new crew chief, could mean Kasey Kahne will as well

Chip Ganassi Racing named Richard Childress Racing team engineer Matt McCall as crew chief for veteran driver Jamie McMurray, whose one-year run with Keith Rodden is over as it appears Rodden could be returning to Hendrick Motorsports.

Rodden is the most likely candidate to take over as crew chief for Kasey Kahne, with whom Rodden worked as an engineer for several years. Hendrick hasn’t announced any crew chief changes, but Kahne crew chief Kenny Francis declined to say what he would be doing in 2015 when asked Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

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Kahne struggled this year, barely making the Chase thanks to a win in the next-to-last regular-season race at Atlanta. He finished 15th in the standings with three top-fives and 11 top-10s.

Rodden left the Kahne team after last year and went to work with McMurray, who finished 18th in the standings and also won the Sprint All-Star Race. He had seven top-fives and 13 top-10s.

Like Rodden, McCall is an engineer. But McCall also has significant racing experience, including five Nationwide starts for former car owner Robert Yates.

“I am really looking forward to 2015 and beginning to work with Matt,” McMurray said in a news release. “As a team, I think we will carry a lot of momentum into Daytona and the hiring of Matt will continue to move the program forward.”

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