Slugger Labbe to crew chief for Austin Dillon
Austin Dillon is getting a new crew chief.
Slugger Labbe, who spent most of 2014 as Paul Menard’s crew chief, is taking over atop the pit box for the No. 3. He’d been in mainly an R&D capacity for Richard Childress Racing in 2015.
Gil Martin, who has served as Dillon’s crew chief for the first 14 races of 2015, will take Labbe’s R&D role.
Austin’s brother Ty has run a part-time schedule in the Cup Series in 2015 and Labbe has served as his crew chief for three of his four races. In the past two weeks at Pocono and Michigan, Ty Dillon has finished 18th and 14th. Austin has finished 19th and 20th.
Austin Dillon is currently 23rd in the points standings. Menard is 12th while Ryan Newman is 16th (he’d be ninth without the 50-point penalty for tire manipulation).
Martin was Kevin Harvick’s crew chief at RCR. When Harvick moved to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014, Martin became Austin Dillon’s crew chief. Austin was the 2014 Rookie of the Year.
Labbe won the 2011 Brickyard 400 with Menard. He was Menard’s crew chief for the first 31 races of 2014 before he was replaced by Menard’s current crew chief, Justin Alexander.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
