Jeff Hensley

Jeffrey Hensley (born November 11, 1962) is an American professional stock car racing driver and crew chief. He works as the crew chief for GMS Racing on their No. 23 Chevrolet Silverado in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, driven by Chase Purdy. A longtime crew chief in the Truck Series, Hensley previously worked as a crew chief for ThorSport Racing (two stints with them), GMS Racing (another stint with them), Joe Dennette/NTS Motorsports, Kevin Harvick Incorporated, Red Horse Racing, Xpress Motorsports, and Bill Davis Racing.

Jeff Hensley
Born (1962-11-11) November 11, 1962
Ridgeway, Virginia
Achievements1990 NASCAR Busch Series champion crew chief
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
90 races run over 4 years
Best finish8th (1984)
First race1982 Dogwood 500 (Martinsville)
Last race1985 Winn-Dixie 500 (Martinsville)
Wins Top tens Poles
0 24 0

Racing career

Hensley began racing at the age of eighteen, racing in various short tracks in Virginia and North Carolina. In 1982, he moved to the newly-formed Busch Grand National Series, competing in the No.'s 2 and 63 for his family-owned team. In his first season of competition, he ran ten races, and had five top-ten finishes. His abbreviated schedule landed him twentieth in points. The following season, he ran twenty-eight of the schedule thirty-five races, and had nine top-ten finishes, and improved to tenth in standings.

He had two less top-tens in 1984, but had a career-best eighth-place finish in points. After he dropped to three top-tens in 1985, in the No. 2 Flute's Sheetmetal car, he retired and became the crew chief for his family's No. 63 car. He worked with Jimmy Hensley, Larry Pollard, and Mike Swaim over the next three years before Chuck Bown became the new driver of the 63 in 1989. They won the championship together in 1990, earning Hensley Mechanic of the Year honors. They continued to work together until the 1994 season, when Bown left and was replaced by his brother Jim. Hensley continued working for the team until it was sold in 2001.

Following the sale, he worked for Arrington Manufacturers for three years before returning to the track when he was hired by Bill Davis Racing in 2004 to serve as the crew chief for Bill Lester's No. 22 truck. The following season, he was reassigned to the No. 5 of Mike Skinner, where he stayed for two and a half seasons. He and Skinner won eight races and finished second in points during the 2007 season. In the summer of 2008, he left BDR to become the competition director for Bobby Hamilton Racing.[1] However, Hensley left BHR a few months later to return to crew chiefing, and for the last few races of 2008 and all of 2009, Hensley was the crew chief for Brian Scott's No. 16 truck for Xpress Motorsports. After Xpress closed down in 2010, Hensley moved to Red Horse Racing, working as the crew chief for the No. 17 of Timothy Peters, and won the season-opener at Daytona.

Hensley left RHR after 2010 to work for Kevin Harvick Incorporated. Though he initially served as Ron Hornaday's crew chief, he moved to crew chief for Nelson Piquet Jr. and the No. 8 truck, before joining Joe Denette Motorsports for the final race of the season. In 2012, he started the year with JDM, reunited with Hornaday,[2] before moving to Turner Scott Motorsports to crew chief for Miguel Paludo halfway through the season, a role he reprised in 2013.

At the start of the 2014 season, Hensley moved to NTS Motorsports as crew chief for the team's No. 20 truck.[3]

After crew chiefing Grant Enfinger and the No. 98 truck for ThorSport Racing for four years (from 2017 to 2020), Hensley returned to GMS Racing in 2021, where he became the crew chief for the No. 23 of Chase Purdy.[4] He had worked for GMS in 2016 as Spencer Gallagher's crew chief when he drove the No. 23 full-time in the Truck Series.

References
  1. "Bobby Hamilton Racing hires Jeff Hensley". Motorsport.com. July 11, 2008. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  2. Singler, John (February 23, 2012). "Hornaday Hungry for Daytona Win". Motor Racing Network. Retrieved March 7, 2014.
  3. Bobo, Jeff (February 16, 2014). "Kingsport native believes he has truck, crew chief, desire to win again at Daytona". Kingsport Times-News. Kingsport, TN. Retrieved March 7, 2014.
  4. "GMS Racing announces 2021 crew chief lineup". Jayski's Silly Season Site. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. January 8, 2021.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.