Will this Mike Ford for Greg Erwin crew chief swap change the dynamic for Aric Almirola? And Denny Hamlin weighs in too

Crew chief Mike Ford (R) and Denny Hamlin: now just why did the two split? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

   (Updated)


   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net


   TALLADEGA, Ala.
   Being a big-league NASCAR crew chief is a curious job.
   And it's not easy.
   Mike Ford, after so many seasons with Toyota's Denny Hamlin, including that almost brilliant 2010 championship run, and now, suddenly, with Ford's Aric Almirola, knows all too well. Ford and Hamlin won 17 Sprint Cup races together, and in their six years as teammate at Joe Gibbs they never missed the playoffs.

   And yet at the end of last season Gibbs announced the spllit.
   At least Ford is now finally back in business, after nearly six months on the sidelines. "I'm surprised it took Mike this long...because I consider him one of the top five crew chiefs in the sport," Hamlin says.

   Just waiting for the right opportunity, apparently.
   Only Saturday Ford was in Los Angeles…"when I got a call asking if I could be in the shop Monday morning," Ford was saying here early Friday morning, relating the latest twist in his career path.
   Now Ford is replacing Greg Erwin in the Jack Roush-Richard Petty camp.
   NASCAR crew chiefs are certainly high profile….as long as they're producing. But when the well goes dry, well, not much job security. This is a performance-driven business.
   And last season Ford and Hamlin just seemed down too many weeks.
   Ford thus joined Greg Zipadelli and others leaving the Gibbs operation….perhaps raising questions about the Gibbs operation.
    "I'm a huge fan of Mike," Hamlin says. "Given the right opportunity he can be very, very successful.  
   "He is the reason we won that many races (17) when we were together.  
   "(But) within our shop, he didn't always have the cooperation of everyone, and sometimes people didn't believe in him as much as they should. Or vice-
versa.
    "You have to have everyone in the shop back you 100 percent, and I think he felt everyone didn't have his back.
    "It just was one of those things -- when things are good and you're winning, everyone is willing to listen to you and do whatever you want, but when you're struggling….I think they were having a hard time buying into what he believed in."

   Ford said he didn't want to talk much about the odd decision late last season by Gibbs that left him on the sidelines.
  "That was bothersome to me; there were a lot of job shifts…and the timing wasn't good," Ford says slowly.
   "I am not going to say a whole lot about that, other than to say a lot of outside influence made it not fun.
    "The past couple of years truly weren't that fun.
    "So it was best for both parties…
    "I want to get something real clear -- me and Denny still get along. I love Denny to death. I never had any problems with Denny and I still don't.
    "But this is business.
    "In the organization you see things you need to work on…and if you are the only guy that sees them, then you are the guy that is an issue.
    "It just was time to go, it was time to move on.
     "That is life. You move on, and you continue on."

Aric Almirola: After five years running the Sprint Cup tour part-time, it's time to produce (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

    About Erwin, Almirola says "I'm not here to bash Greg. He's won races.
   "But for me just to have a fresh start…."

      Ford is an easy-going guy, well-known in the sport, well respected. A rock. So his abrupt dismissal by Gibbs was surprising. Just as surprising as Tony Stewart's similarly abrupt dismissal of Grubb, after leading Stewart to the Sprint Cup championship.
   Yes, being a star NASCAR crew chief is a strange job.
   And it's no longer that much about engineering and equipment, more about organization and morale and race-day decisions.
   Certainly Ford has all that in spades.
   The question really here is Almirola.
   For Almirola, the time to perform is now.
   He made his Cup debut more than five years ago now. And while he has admittedly had only a part-time schedule since then (just 44 Cup races), he still hasn't lived up to his potential.
   Running legendary, if rusty, number 43 this season, Almirola hasn't done all that much so far this season. He's 23rd in the standings, averaging 21st place finishes and 20th place starts.
   In contrast, teammate Greg Biffle is atop the tour standings and fellow teammate Matt Kenseth is fourth.

  Mike Ford: last few years at Joe Gibbs' weren't that much fun he says. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

    It's been a curious road for Ford.
   Now a Ford guy, after years with Toyota, Ford says he's the man under the gun to get up to speed: "I'm the guy on the steep learning curve. This sport is so technical now. And you have to be ready to take advantages of the equipment you've got.
   "We don't have a lot of time moving it back forward.
   "And we know we have the same equipment as the Roush guys."
   However Ford's biggest role apparently will be to 'mentor' Almirola, much as he did Hamlin during their early years together.

   But Almirola is the question. Ford remember has won a lot of race; Almirola is still looking for his first.
   So what's the deal on Almirola? He's aggressive, energetic, mentored for a while under Mark Martin.
   But can he close the deal?   
   Is the Ford-for-Erwin switch just something to placate sponsors? To buy time?
   Uh, who is Almirola's sponsor here this weekend anyway?
      
   Almirola says he looks forward to Ford being a "mentor.
    "That's what I'm really looking for with Mike."
    And Ford says his being 'low key,' is probably good for Almirola: "I am fairly low key. I think it is going to be a good match."
    Almirola says Ford "has a whole new fresh set of ideas, and a lot of experience.
    "I know I've run quite a few Cup races but I am still relatively new at this. This is my first full time season. So to have the experience and leadership of Mike will be really good.
     "I am not here to bash Greg, because he was a great guy, and great crew chief, and he has won races and will continue to win races.
    "For me, just to have a fresh start…
    "To have someone who can talk to me on the radio, and teach me, and mentor me, and tell me what he wants…."
    
    One of the curious points in this is why it took Ford so long to land a new job. A crew chief who came as close as he did to winning the championship certainly knows his stuff.
    But Ford says top crew chiefs these days are hard to plug into new teams, because "each organization has a history behind it….And that is so difficult to learn…so it is easier to promote from within than it is to go outside.
    "The history inside each race shop makes it difficult to change organizations."

    The move to hire Ford is curious in another respect: Erwin is an engineer, but Ford is not. And this is a very high-tech sport.
   Ford says a crew chief doesn't have to be an engineer these days: "the crew chief is a decision maker and not a trendsetter. You make sure you've got the right guys around you…and you hone your skills on making decisions.
    "The role of crew chief doesn't require an engineering degree; it requires somebody that can lead and make decisions…and have a good understanding of why you are making changes."
     The role of a crew chief is also related to the driver: "Some of the veteran drivers don't really do well with veteran crew chiefs because you are bull-headed on some things.
    "Aric is looking for a leader, someone to mentor him a little bit."
   
   Now the game plan?
   Talladega is a crap shoot, naturally, but Ford and Almirola need to get something cranking fast this spring, with sponsorship issues always one major item to settle.
    "Here at Talladega I am just fitting with what was there," Ford says. "All of the (Roush Ford) stuff ran really good at Daytona (one-two), so I am not really that focused on that.
    "The first things I need to work on -- rather than the equipment -- are the procedures: making sure we execute without mistakes, and build confidence in Aric, and confidence in the team.
    "We don't have a lot of time to start moving it forward.
    "Darlington is a big deal….
     "Hopefully we can get some top-20 or top-15s. The team has been pretty erratic; I am looking to smooth things out and progress over the next five or six weeks.
    "Darlington is going to be a challenge for us; but Carl Edwards (a teammate) had the best car at Darlington last year, and we can fall back on some of that knowledge.
    "Then we have Charlotte and Dover – this team has been typically very strong at Dover, probably one of the top three.
    "Then Pocono and Michigan, and we get a day of testing those (new) configurations.
     "So the timing of this couldn't be better."
    However the timeframe to generate results is going to be tight.