Car Chief change at the #48

SIRIUS NASCAR Radio, host Claire B. Lang recently spoke with Ron Malec, car chief for the Sprint Cup Champion #48 team at Hendrick Motorsports. Malec revealed that next season he’ll be giving up his over-the-wall pit crew duties to spend more time up on the pit box.

Ron Malec: “I’m just going to take more of a role during the races and try to help out crew chief Chad Knaus and maybe delegate some of the pit stop stuff, like when we make adjustments on the car I’ll be there behind the scenes now to make sure it gets done right and make sure everybody knows what is going on. It was my choice to step down from the pit crew. I feel like I need to learn more about race strategy and stuff like that. I’ve suffered some injuries throughout the seasons and it just wears on you after a while. I feel sometimes that my body wasn’t 100% to do pit stops every weekend and with all the work on the car that we have to do now in preparation before the races sometimes you are a little worn out before the race and I don’t think it’s fair to go out there not 100%. So I offered to step down and retire. It’s been 10 years I’ve been doing pit stops and it wears on your after a while."

Host, Claire B. Lang: “So you’re still going to be the car chief but you won’t be playing a role on the pit crew?"

Malec: “Correct. Yeah, I’ll be up on the pit box with Chad. I’ll still do all the preparation on the car all weekend long like I’ve been doing in the past. I just won’t be doing the over-the-wall pit stop stuff." SIRIUS XM Radio PR