Stewart-Haas Racing Makes Mid-Season Changes to Crew Chief Lineup

Stewart-Haas Racing officially shuffled the deck of its crew chief lineup on Tuesday. The changes made will begin starting with this weekend's NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series events at Nashville Superspeedway.

Chase Briscoe and the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing team will now have Richard Boswell as their crew chief.

Boswell, who had been serving as the No. 98 SHR team's crew chief in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, will now move to the NASCAR Cup Series. The pairing of Briscoe and Boswell will be an interesting one to keep an eye on as the duo amassed eight NASCAR Xfinity Series victories together between 2018 and 2020.

As Boswell moves from the No. 98 NASCAR Xfinity Series team, Davin Restivo will serve as the new crew chief for Riley Herbst.

Restivo, who has served as the lead engineer of the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing NASCAR Cup Series team since 2022, will now get his shot atop the pit box in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

John Klausmeier, who had been serving as Briscoe's crew chief with the No. 14 team, will remain with the team and has transitioned to the company's vehicle performance group.

With the changes, the team hopes a set of fresh perspectives can produce fresh results.

“We made these changes in the best interests of the entire organization,” said Greg Zipadelli, chief competition officer, SHR. “Different people in new positions brings new perspectives. There’s still a lot of racing left to do this year, which means there’s still a lot of opportunity. We need to seize these opportunities and make the most of them, and fresh perspectives from the top of the pit box to the preparation inside the shop will help us do that.”

While a 125-point penalty certainly didn't help things for Briscoe and the No. 14 team, the group sits 31st in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings after 16 races in 2023.

This time a year ago, Briscoe sat 13th in the championship standings and he had a win in his back pocket. Perhaps the pairing of Briscoe and Boswell can be as potent as it was in the NASCAR Xfinity Series ranks.

And for Herbst, maybe Restivo can unlock the door to victory lane, which Herbst has been knocking on for several seasons.

Photo Credit: Stewart-Haas Racing