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A late season change for Wood Brothers Racing and Team Penske. Jeremy Bullins is out as crew chief of the No. 21 and out of the organization. Bullins was able to help deliver the 100th NASCAR win in WBR history.
Harrison Burton will have lead engineer Grant Hutchens as his crew chief for this weekend and likely the rest of the season. Jeremy Bullins will depart Wood Brothers and the Team Penske organization as a whole.
WBR and Penske have a strong alliance and many of the crew members are Penske employees. This appears to be a preemptive move for Wood Brothers and Bullins to get ready for 2025.
Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports reported on the change.
Team Penske says Bullins is no longer with the organization and is pursuing other opportunities. “We respect his decision and wish him the best.” https://t.co/SHC4343efm
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) October 25, 2024
Team Penske is in the middle of trying to get Ryan Blaney in the Championship 4 with Joey Logano. Winners of the last two Cup Series championships, Penske is hoping to keep the trend going.
Of course, Wood Brothers Racing is changing completely next year. Josh Berry will take over the No. 21 from Harrison Burton. That means a new crew chief and other personnel will be needed. Berry is highly respected as a consistent and competent driver.
It is the end of the season, these changes happen. Crew members take new jobs or start to get offers from other teams. Then, organizations part ways so they can hold onto their secrets as much as possible. Nature of the sport.
Wood Brothers Racing, Team Penske will be solid in 2025
There should be an improvement in this Wood Brothers Racing team next year. Josh Berry is someone who can not only drive the car but help make it better. He has raced and worked on his own cars in the past. He’s a short track racer through and through.
Harrison Burton is a talented driver. He is. But he was put into a tough situation. Wood Brothers is an organization that you can have success with, but it takes the right driver. Burton just wasn’t the right driver, was likely too young, and needs more time to develop.
Let’s see what Burton does in the Xfinity Series next year. AM Racing is in a tough position. But they will at least have a driver that can take a leadership role in their organization. The main reason, there isn’t really that much leadership from a driver standpoint, and it isn’t the pressure of the Cup Series, either.
Wood Brothers Racing is going to make more changes in the coming weeks and months. This is a fairly significant one as far as crew chiefs go. Bullins will likely land somewhere else for 2025.
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