Chase Briscoe will have a new crew chief this weekend at Nashville Superspeedway, part of a shuffle Stewart-Haas Racing announced Tuesday.
Richard Boswell, who won eight Xfinity races with Briscoe from 2018-20, will be reunited with Briscoe in the Cup Series. Boswell replaces John Klausmeier, who moves to SHR’s vehicle performance group.
Davin Restivo replaces Boswell as the crew chief for Riley Herbst in the Xfinity Series. Restivo has been the lead engineer for Aric Almirola‘s Cup team.
The change comes as Briscoe enters Sunday’s Cup race at Nashville Superspeedway (7 p.m. ET, NBC) 31st in points and needing a victory to make the playoffs for the second year in a row. Briscoe is so far in the standings after penalties that included the loss of 120 points for a counterfeit part found on his car after the Coca-Cola 600.
Briscoe has four top 10s in the first 16 races of the season. He has nine finishes of 20th or worse this season, including five of the last six points races.
“I feel like Chase just needs something different right now,” Greg Zipadelli, chief competition officer for Stewart-Haas Racing, told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday. “He needs someone to help him grow in a different way, help hold him a little more accountable, and Richard has done that in the past.
“When we first moved him over (to Cup), Chase, we contemplated whether we needed to move Richard with him just because they had a good relationship. Even Richard thought it would be a lot, a rookie driver and crew chief with this new car and things of that nature. We elected to do what we did. (Briscoe and Klausmeier) won last year. They made the (playoffs). They had a pretty solid year, had opportunities to win two or three other races. That’s all you can ask for.
“We didn’t start the year like we thought we should with them. We have great expectations for (Briscoe). We need to get him to living up to the expectations that I know that he’s capable of and he knows himself. Thought this was the perfect time to make some changes with the week off.”
Boswell has been a full-time crew chief in the Xfinity Series since 2019. He served as a crew chief in selected Xfinity races from 2016-18. He has been Herbst’s crew chief since 2021. Herbst is winless but has made the playoffs each of the past two seasons.
Boswell served as a Cup crew chief for two races with Clint Bowyer in 2017.
“He deserves the opportunity,” Zipadelli told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio about Boswell’s promotion to the Cup Series. “He’s been with us for a while. … He has been a huge part of our Xfinity program and where it is today. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t know if we would have been where we’re at. He’s kind of taken it on personally. He’s done a lot more than crew chief over there in the past.
“I like his leadership. He’s pretty disciplined and has his ways and holds everyone accountable around him, including Chase. Really looking forward to getting them a few weeks under their belt and seeing if we can’t make some progress there.”
