Crew chief announcement caps off busy stretch for No. 48 team
The No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team’s 2022 season has been wild – a win, crew chief Greg Ives’s expected departure at year’s end and Noah Gragson’s unexpected fill-in tenure for Alex Bowman – and this week was no different.
On Wednesday, the team learned Noah Gragson will again fill in for Alex Bowman for the next three races — at Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami and Martinsville.
Before the 2022 season began, Gragson was named to the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet for those races. However, with Gragson’s Hendrick reserve driver role taking precedence, A.J. Allmendinger will drive the No. 16 car instead.
Two days after the announcement of Gragson’s continued fill-in tenure, Hendrick Motorsports named Blake Harris as the replacement for crew chief Greg Ives.
Harris currently serves as Front Row Motorsports driver Michael McDowell’s crew chief but will depart FRM to be crew chief for the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team in 2023.
Harris has served as McDowell’s crew chief in 28 of 32 races so far in 2022 (Harris was suspended for four races). Together, Michael McDowell has earned 11 top-10 finishes, a 15.3 average finish and 51 laps led – all career-best stats for him.
Front Row Motorsports hasn’t indicated who will replace Harris.
Harris previously served as Martin Truex Jr.’s car chief before joining FRM. He also served as Truex’s crew chief when he finished second at Texas in October 2020.
Noah Gragson has never made a NASCAR Cup Series start at home in Las Vegas, his best track in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition (minimum four starts). The Las Vegas native he has earned six top-5s, 55 laps led a 3.6 average finish and top-10s in all seven Xfinity starts at the track.
The South Point 400 goes green just after 2:30 p.m. ET from Las Vegas Motor Speedway (TV: NBC, Streaming: NBC Sports App; Radio; PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Ch. 90). The No. 48 team won the March Las Vegas race with Alex Bowman driving.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com