With the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs days away from commencing, Team Penske and Wood Brothers Racing announced a crew chief swap for two of their combined Penske-affiliated entries for the remainder of this season and entering the 2024 season.
Beginning with the Playoff opener next Sunday at Darlington Raceway, Jeremy Bullins, who was the crew chief for Team Penske’s No. 2 Ford Mustang entry piloted by Austin Cindric, will reunite with Wood Brothers Racing and lead the No. 21 team piloted by Harrison Burton. As a result, Brian Wilson, who was atop the pit box of Wood Brothers Racing’s No. 21 team for more than a season, will return to Team Penske and reunite with Cindric to lead the No. 2 team in NASCAR’s premier series.
The move for Bullins, a native of Walnut Cove, North Carolina, to Wood Brothers Racing, reignites a dynamic pairing as Bullins spent the 2015-17 seasons with the championship-winning organization as a Cup crew chief with Ryan Blaney piloting the No. 21 entry. Through 88 events, Bullins led Blaney and the No. 21 team to a late victory at Pocono Raceway in June 2017, which marks the 99th and latest victory for Wood Brothers Racing, and they went on to make the Playoffs and finish in ninth place in the final standings. The driver-crew chief duo also achieved a combined two poles, eight top-five results, 25 top-10 results and 332 laps led before both departed Wood Brothers and moved to Team Penske in 2018.
From 2018 through the first 26 events of the 2023 season, Bullins has achieved eight Cup victories while working with three different competitors (Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Austin Cindric). His latest triumph was winning the 2022 Daytona 500 with Cindric, who proceeded to finish 12th in the final standings and claim the Rookie-of-the-Year title. He also achieved a breakout season with Keselowski in 2020, with the duo achieving four victories and making the Championship 4 round before finishing in the runner-up spot in the final standings. In addition to his success in the Cup Series, Bullins has 21 victories as an Xfinity Series crew chief under his resume and played an instrumental role in leading Penske’s No. 22 entry to back-to-back Xfinity owner’s championships (2013 and 2014).
This season, Bullins and Cindric have only achieved three top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 21.1 through 26 scheduled events. Their best on-track results of this season thus far were three sixth-place runs at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Circuit of the Americas in March along with the inaugural Chicago Street Course in July. Currently situated in 22nd place in the standings, they did not make the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs a year after making it.
For Wilson, the transition to Team Penske’s No. 2 team reunites the Detroit, Michigan, native back with the three-time Cup Series championship-winning organization to which he first joined in 2004 and was a race engineer during Penske’s first Xfinity Series championship in 2010 and first Cup Series championship in 2012, both achieved by former Penske competitor Brad Keselowski.
Wilson called over 160 Xfinity events as a crew chief and achieved 23 victories from 2016-21, 13 of which were made by Austin Cindric and with whom Wilson will also reunite. During this span, he led Team Penske’s No. 22 entry to three Xfinity owner’s championships (2017, 2020, and 2021) and guided Cindric to the 2020 Xfinity Series driver’s championship. He also called his first four Cup events as a crew chief for Keselowski and the No. 2 entry in 2017 before being named a full-time Cup crew chief for Harrison Burton and the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team in 2022, who ended up 27th in the final standings.
This season, Wilson and Burton have only achieved two top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 23.8 through 26 scheduled events. Their best on-track result of this season thus far was a sixth-place run at Darlington in May. Currently situated in 30th place in the standings, they too did not make the Playoffs for a second consecutive season.
With Bullins now paired with Burton and Wilson reunited with Cindric, the new driver-crew chief duo sets their sights on concluding the 2023 season on a strong note, beginning in this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoff opener at Darlington Raceway for the Cook Out Southern 500. The event is scheduled to occur on Sunday, September 3, at 6 p.m. ET on USA Network.
