Montoya to get new crew chief in 2012

Juan Pablo Montoya has raided Hendrick Motorsports to find his new crew chief for 2012.

Chris "Sunshine" Heroy, who was the team engineer and led Dale Earnhardt Jr. to two top-five finishes as a crew chief in the Nationwide Series in 2011, will assume the top spot with the No. 42 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup team.

News of the move was first reported by FOXSports.com on Nov. 12.

“We are very excited to bring Chris into the organization and to have him work with Juan Pablo,” team owner Chip Ganassi said. “We think he will be a great addition to the Target team and believe his combined engineering and crew chief background should help him work well with both our engineers and competition folks to move our program forward. He has a great reputation in the industry and we are happy to bring him into the mix.”

Montoya finished the 2011 season 21st in the standings, with eight top-10 finishes, two of them top fives. Interim crew chief Jim Pohlman, who took over the No. 42 team at the end of July, will remain with the organization.