Biffle's crew chief Tryson, Roush Fenway part ways
FOXSports.com
DAVIDSON, N.C. - Pat Tryson and Roush Fenway Racing have parted ways, effective immediately.
Tryson, 43, was most recently crew chief for Greg Biffle and the No. 16 team but moved to that operation at the start of this season after a three-year partnership with Mark Martin on the No. 6 Roush Fenway Ford. Tryson and Martin made the Chase for the Nextel Cup all three season and finished third, third and ninth in the point standings.
"Greg's awesome. Anyone that can't work with Greg is crazy," Tryson said. "He's a great guy and a great racer. If we don't wreck four times, and the brakes don't go out at Martinsville, we'd be in the top five. None of the cars are running well. Matt (Kenseth)'s finishing good, but he's not running well.
"Roush has been good to me the three years that I've been there. Things just haven't gone well for us this year."
After Roush-Fenway experienced an uncharacteristically off-year in 2006 with just Kenseth and Martin qualifying for the Chase, the organization has not shown dramatic improvement this season. While Kenseth, the 2003 Cup champ, continues to persevere -- with an assist by one of the strongest pit crews in the sport -- Carl Edwards is just barely in the top 10 in points and Jamie McMurray trails the top 12 by 46 markers. Biffle is four points behind Martin, who has missed three races this season and rookie David Ragan, 26th, is nine points outside the top 25.
Tryson said that his phone has been ringing since he received the news Tuesday afternoon, including a call from a top 10 driver. DEI had expressed interest last season in having Tryson crew chief the No. 15 with Paul Menard, but Tryson, who has worked with Roush for most of the last decade, stayed to oversee the No.16 Ford, which is currently 16th in the point standings. DEI VP of competition Richie Gilmore said he'd still be interested in bringing Tryson aboard.
"I think it's a very good possibility," Gilmore said. "That's a guy that we have talked to in the past, and we'd certainly talk to him again."
Tryson added that Chris Andrews, who was formerly with Evernham Motorsports, would be the crew chief for the No. 16, but Greg Erwin's name has been mentioned as a long-term solution. Gene Nead replaced Erwin last week as the crew chief of the No. 7 Robby Gordon Motorsports Ford. Gordon said Wednesday morning that he "would not hold Erwin back if another crew chief position came along."
Roush says timing was right for crew chief change
SCENEDAILY
CONCORD, N.C. - Team owner Jack Roush says he has been having conversations with crew chiefs about taking over the role with Greg Biffle's team even before the team struggled in the Nextel All-Star Challenge race last weekend.
While he pointed out the Pat Tryson, who was replaced as crew chief for the team by Greg Erwin on Wednesday, has been good for both the Roush Fenway Racing team and the sport, he said that it was time for a change.
Erwin is working as an advisor to the team this weekend and will take over as crew chief prior to the Cup race at Dover. Chris Andrews will call the shots for Biffle in this weekend's Coca-Cola 600.
Roush said that when Mark Martin's tenure with the team ended last year, Tryson asked the owner to release him from the final year of his contract. Instead, Tryson ended up moving over to Biffle's team, which has yet to win this year and is 16th in the standings.
Roush said that a breakdown of the relationship between Tryson and the engineering side of the team led to the decision to do something that might
make the car perform better.
Roush says that he wasn't just looking at Erwin, who worked as Robby Gordon's crew chief earlier this year, but rather that he didn't want to wait until later to make a change aimed at making Biffle more competitive.
"I was looking at more than one person," he said. "I had three people in the mix, and Greg was actually the first person that I talked to, and then we pursued another course because he wasn't available at an earlier date. To give a little bit of an answer, there was some urgency after last Saturday, so it was a matter of time.
"I preferred to go in and pull the trigger now for the longest race of the year, and with it being at home here, I preferred to do it now and went on and did that. It was my call."