Changes at Roush Fenway Racing

Roush Fenway Racing is taking steps to right the ship. On Wednesday, RFR will announce the addition of respected motorsports manager Mark McArdle as engineering director. McArdle will oversee all engineering for the organization and report to general manager Robbie Reiser.

"My role is to provide the organization with better vision, increased levels of direction and communication to allow all the available resources to work together to find the solutions to the basic core problem of car performance," McArdle said. McArdle most recently was director of racing operations at Richard Childress Racing.

He held the position since the summer of 2013 after four seasons with Furniture Row Racing in Denver. The last two years at FRR, McArdle served as an intermediary in the teams' technical alliance. He moved back to North Carolina to be closer to his family – ultimately the reason McArdle chose to leave RCR and join RFR, which cuts his commute in half. McArdle acknowledged he was grateful for the opportunity with Richard Childress and still has tremendous respect for the organization.

Although McArdle will join RFR at the track this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway, he only expects to be on the road 25-percent of the time in order to focus on the challenges back at the Concord, N.C.-based shop.

RFR has also hired Kevin Kidd as its Sprint Cup team manager. Kidd, who currently oversees the #20 Nationwide Series team for Joe Gibbs Racing, earned an engineering degree at Virginia Tech. He also worked with McArdle as the race engineer on the #19 at Evernham Motorsports. Kidd's role will be similar to Eric Peterson, who was Roush Fenway's operations manager before overseeing the Nationwide Series program. Motorsport.com