Two veteran crew chiefs will join the growing Front Row Motorsports team for the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series campaign. Drew Blickensderfer will lead the No. 34 team with driver Michael McDowell, and Mike Kelley will head up the efforts of the new No. 36 team with rookie driver Matt Tifft. Seth Barbour returns as crew chief of the No. 38 team with driver David Ragan.
Blickensderfer joins the No. 34 team from Richard Petty Motorsports where he had served as a crew chief since 2012. He has three Cup Series wins, including one with Ragan at Roush Fenway Racing in 2011.
Kelley joins the No. 36 team from Roush Fenway where he served as crew chief of the No. 60 NASCAR XFINITY Series entry in 2018. The NASCAR veteran is a two-time XFINITY series champion, leading Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to titles in 2011 and 2012 as well as the Rookie of the Year title in 2010.
Barbour will begin his second full season with Front Row Motorsports in 2019. After joining the team as No. 34 crew chief in mid-2017, Barbour headed Ragan’s team throughout 2018, leading the No. 38 to its best points finish in team history (25th). A team engineer for Roush Fenway for eight years, Barbour was a member of the 2011 and 2012 Stenhouse championship teams.
As Front Row Motorsports continues to grow in its 11th full-time season, Derrick Finley will take on the new role of technical director, and Donnie Wingo will continue to lead the competition staff efforts as competition director.
Additional news about the growing team will be announced in the coming weeks. For more information about Front Row Motorsports, visit TeamFRM.com.
Front Row Motorsports PR
