Dave Elenz Earns First Championship with William Byron

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – After leading JR Motorsports “All-Star” car since 2015, Dave Elenz earned his first championship on Saturday with driver William Byron.

Elenz has been a crew chief with JR Motorsports since 2015. His first victory in the series came with Kevin Harvick at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in just his second race as a crew chief.

In 2017, Elenz was given the opportunity to oversee William Byron, who made the move from the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. A full-time opportunity to focus on one driver for the season. The first, and what appears to be the only season with Byron, resulted in four victories, 12 top-fives, 22 top-10s and two poles. It also resulted in Byron’s first drivers’ championship in the NASCAR XFINITY Series.

“Last year coming down here and watching the (No.) 7 and the (No.) 1 run and not having the opportunity to race them kind of makes you feel sad a little bit, so, when we got the opportunity to work full-time with William this year, our group was really excited,” Elenz said. “All of the guys have always been with the ‘all-star’ group and they’d been together for a while now. The goal for everybody was to get to this point with William. It just feels really good to finally be able to be a part of it and be able to accomplish that.”

Elenz’ plans for next season haven’t been announced yet. Tyler Reddick will replace Byron in the fourth JR Motorsports car for 2018, so it wouldn’t be a shock if Elenz oversees Reddick’s first full-time effort in the XFINITY Series.