Rodden's history at Hendrick Motorsports will ease transition

CONCORD, N.C. – Hendrick Motorsports will have two new crew chiefs in 2015.

But for such a big change, it is set up for as smooth a transition as possible.

Greg Ives – the 2015 crew chief for the No. 88 team – spent his first nine years in NASCAR with Hendrick Motorsports. As a race engineer for the No. 48 team, he was part of Jimmie Johnson’s five consecutive Sprint Cup championships from 2006-10.

Similarly, Keith Rodden – who will take over as crew chief for the No. 5 team in 2015 – worked with Kasey Kahne as a team engineer from 2004 to 2013. The final two years of that span came at Hendrick Motorsports, where he worked with outgoing crew chief Kenny Francis.

"It is a lot of change, so we're going to have to keep our arms around that,” Hendrick Motorsports General Manager Doug Duchardt said. “But … I think when you have people that have grown up in the organization and understand how we work, it really helps accelerate the ability to perform.”

Hendrick Motorsports Owner Rick Hendrick agreed, noting that he would be more concerned with all the changes if the new crew chiefs weren’t familiar with the organization, but both have been here before.

“They've been a big part of the success of this organization,” he said. “So having them back is just going to make us stronger."

Rodden said that it means a lot to him to be back with Hendrick Motorsports, an organization that he said is “like family” to him.

"This is my first day, so it's a lot of fun being here and seeing so many familiar faces, getting back involved and going to meetings and just kind of hitting the ground running,” he said. “I'm excited to be back and looking forward to starting 2015 strong."

Meanwhile, Francis will move into the new position of vehicle technical director. In that role, he will oversee organization-wide car design and development and serve as the primary liaison between the crew chiefs and Hendrick Motorsports’ vehicle group.

Having a former crew chief in that new position should help the transition of new leaders of the Nos. 5 and 88 teams, as well.

“Kenny's got a lot of things to bring to the table for all four teams,” said Duchardt, who called Francis “one of the brightest minds in the garage area.”

“I think for the crew chiefs it's good to have someone that has that crew-chief mentality to help drive the technical side of the company,” he continued. “Kenny understands what it's like to sit in that crew-chief role, understands the pressure that they're under and can hopefully help deliver better race cars for them to perform with."

Duchardt noted that all of those elements should combine to help Hendrick Motorsports “hit the ground running” in 2015.