In his return as a full-time crew chief in the NASCAR Cup Series, Ben Beshore, who works atop the pit box of the No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota Camry XSE team piloted by John Hunter Nemechek, is poised to achieve a milestone feat. By participating in this weekend’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Beshore will call his 100th event as a crew chief in NASCAR’s premier series.
A native of The York, Pennsylvania, Beshore, who earned an engineering degree from Virginia Tech, previously worked for Brewco Motorsports in a variety of roles before becoming a race engineer for Roush Fenway Racing in 2007. Seven years later, he joined Joe Gibbs Racing and continued to work as a race engineer for Kyle Busch and the No. 18 team.
During the 2017 season, Beshore made his inaugural presence as a Cup Series crew chief at Pocono Raceway in June. The role was an interim one for Beshore, who was filling in for the suspended Adam Stevens after Stevens was suspended for four events due to a wheel that came off of Busch’s car amid an early pit stop during the previous event at Dover Motor Speedway.
During the Pocono event, Busch, who started on the pole and led a race-high 100 laps, ended up in ninth place. Beshore would then navigate Busch and the No. 18 team to a seventh-place result at Michigan International Speedway and a fifth-place finish at Sonoma Raceway, respectively, before he was suspended from participating at Daytona International Speedway in July amid a lug nut infraction as Busch’s No. 18 entry had two loose lug nuts following the post-race inspection process at Sonoma.
After returning to his role as race engineer for the remainder of the 2017 season and the entire 2018 season, Beshore scaled back to the Xfinity Series to work as a crew chief for JGR’s No. 18 Toyota entry that was piloted by seven different competitors throughout the 2019 season. During the season, he notched four victories, all occurring with Busch, and led the No. 18 team to a 12th-place finish in the final owner’s standings. The following season, Beshore was paired with Harrison Burton in the Xfinity circuit. Together, the duo notched four victories, 15 top-five results, 22 top-10 results, 291 laps and an average-finishing result of 10.0. After qualifying for the 2020 Xfinity Series Playoffs before being eliminated following the Round of 12, Burton would settle in eighth place in the final standings and claim the 2020 Xfinity Series Rookie-of-the-Year title.
In 2021, Beshore returned to the Cup Series and reunited with Kyle Busch as he was named as the full-time crew chief of Busch’s No. 18 Toyota entry. In their first event together, Busch won the Busch Clash at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course after he overtook Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott amid a last-lap tussle. The duo recorded two top-five results and five top-10 results during the first 10-scheduled events before Beshore achieved his first Cup points-paying victory at Kansas Speedway in May. Busch, who celebrated his 36th birthday on race day, fended off the field and a hard-charging Kevin Harvick during a two-lap shootout. Beshore and Busch would then achieve a second victory of the season at Pocono Raceway in June after Busch overtook teammate Denny Hamlin prior to the final lap and had enough fuel to coast the No. 18 Toyota across the finish line in first place. To go along with an additional seven top-five results and nine top-10 results for the remaining 15 regular-season events, the duo qualified for the 2021 Cup Series Playoffs.
After recording three top-nine results throughout the 2021 Playoff’s first six events, Beshore and Busch were able to transfer from the Round of 16 to 8. Then, Beshore was suspended from participating in the Round of 8 opener at Texas Motor Speedway following a lug nut infraction with two loose lug nuts amid the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course post-race inspection process. Returning for the following Playoff event at Kansas Speedway in mid-October, Busch finished 28th and second at Martinsville Speedway throughout the Round of 8 but missed the cutline to the Championship 4 round by three points. The duo would proceed to finish seventh in the season-finale event at Phoenix Raceway in November before Busch settled in ninth place in the final standings.
Beshore’s 2022 season started on a rough note after he was suspended from the inaugural Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as a result of another lug nut infraction involving two loose lug nuts stemming from the 2021 finale at Phoenix. Returning atop the pit box for the 64th running of the Daytona 500, Beshore’s season with Busch commenced with a sixth-place finish followed by four additional top-10 results during the next seven events on the schedule. Then at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Course in April, Beshore and Busch notched their first victory of the season after Busch overtook a spinning Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe on the final lap to notch his 60th series victory. Despite finishing in the top five four additional times for the final 15 regular-season events, Beshore and Busch secured a spot into the Cup Series Playoffs for a second consecutive season.
Their title hopes, however, came to an early end after finishing no higher than 26th throughout the Round of 16. Then coming off two consecutive third-place finishes at the Charlotte Roval and Las Vegas Motor Speedway in October, Beshore was suspended for four races for a loose wheel violation that occurred at Las Vegas. The suspension would cause Beshore to miss the remainder of the 2022 Cup Series season as Busch, who was down to his final four events with Joe Gibbs Racing, ended up in 13th place in the final standings.
This past season, Beshore returned to the Xfinity Series to work as the crew chief of the No. 20 JGR Toyota team piloted by John Hunter Nemechek. Together, the duo notched a season-high seven victories, two poles, 17 top-five results, 24 top-10 results, 1,083 laps led and an average-finishing result of 9.5. In addition to making the 2023 Xfinity Series Playoffs, they transferred all the way into the Championship 4 round and contended for the title at Phoenix. However, Nemechek got shuffled during an overtime shootout and ended up in 28th place after being involved in a final lap accident, which relegated Nemechek to fourth place in the final standings.
Nine days after the 2023 season concluded, Beshore was promoted back to the Cup Series as a crew chief for Legacy Motor Club’s No. 42 Toyota Camry XSE entry piloted by Nemechek, who made his return to the Cup circuit following a three-year absence. Through 28 scheduled events, the duo of Beshore and Nemechek recorded only three top-10 results, with their highest finish being a sixth-place run at Bristol Motor Speedway in March. With an average-finishing result of 24.7, they are mired in 34th place in the 2024 drivers’ standings with eight races remaining on the schedule.
Through 99 previous Cup appearances, Beshore has achieved three victories, one pole, 23 top-five results and 42 top-10 results while working with a total of two competitors.
Ben Beshore is scheduled to call his 100th Cup Series career event as a crew chief in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, September 21, with the event’s coverage to occur at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
