Trent Owens to serve as crew chief for Chris Buescher at JTG Daugherty

By Chase Wilhelm
Published

JTG Daugherty has announced Trent Owens will serve as Chris Buescher’s crew chief on the No. 37 team for the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.

“I was just really looking for another opportunity to get back onto the pit box at the Cup level, and JTG (Daugherty Racing) expanded to a second team with Chris Buescher, and fortunately for me, they called,” Owens said. “I’m really looking forward to getting in here and seeing what this place is about, learning their system, trying to adapt and then working with the alliance with Richard Childress Racing, which they have.”

In 2014, Owens began his run atop the pit box for Aric Almirola and the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports team, earning a victory the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway in their first season together.

Owens earned five top fives and 14 top-10 finishes as Almirola’s crew chief until he was replaced by Drew Blickensderfer following the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway in 2016.

“When performance is down and things are suffering, I understand that my job position is one they take a look at, and the change happened, and it’s in the past,” Owens said. “I’ll take what I learned from that experience, which is a great experience, and take some of the mistakes that I feel like I may have made too and improve on that here at JTG and just move forward.”

JTG Daugherty will use a charter from Roush Fenway Racing’s No. 16 team, which means Buescher and Owens will have a guaranteed spot in every race this season.

“It always feels good to be guaranteed in the race,” Owens said. “That pressure having to qualify for these races at this level is pretty intense. I didn’t want to go through what those guys at the Wood Brothers (Racing) had to go through most of the time. It’s not always just about speed, you know rain-outs and so forth, and things like that can get you out of the race. Definitely having the charter is a plus. It’s just weight off your shoulders when you go to any race.”

After the announcement was made, Owens took to Twitter to express how grateful he is for the opportunity to serve as a crew chief once again.

https://twitter.com/wtrentowens/status/816072681674211328