Photo Credit: Noel Lanier
Cole Custer effectively has a new crew chief this weekend. Marcus Richmond will replace Joe Shear Jr. atop the pit box for the No. 00 Haas Automation Chevrolet Silverado for the rest of the season. Shear Jr. resigned from the team earlier this month.
“Marcus is a well-known crew chief in the Truck Series garage, and we are delighted he has joined our team,” said Kelley Earnhardt Miller, general manager of JR Motorsports. “He brings a lot of experience and the kind of steady leadership that can take us to Victory Lane and into the inaugural Chase this season. Paired with Cole and the rest of the team, we are eager to see this new partnership begin at Iowa Speedway.”
Richmond has crew chiefed over 200 races, scoring nine victories while leading Ty Dillon to a runner-up finish in the 2013 standings. He has spent time at a variety of teams, most recently at GMS Racing where he led Johnny Sauter to victory in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway.
“The main reason I came to this team is because they do what it takes to win races, and they have a driver that can win races,” said Richmond, who guided his teams to top-five points finishes in 2013-15. “I feel like this is a great opportunity to do that here at JR Motorsports, with Cole in the driver’s seat. We are going to have to evaluate where we are with everything and build on it as quickly as possible. With JRM’s knowledge and support from Gene Haas, maybe we can jump to where we need to be quickly. We want to have a good solid plan for the rest of the year.”
Custer currently sits 14th in points following the first seven races of the season with one top-five and a pair of top-10s.
