Landon Cassill gets new crew chief in Seth Barbour

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series garage is an ever-changing landscape. Personnel change teams or positions within teams on a regular basis, all along the evolution of the sport and what it takes to be fast.

That evolution caught up with Front Row Motorsports and Cedar Rapids native Landon Cassill's team this week. Cassill's crew chief of the last year and a half, Donnie Wingo, was named FRM's competition director Monday, and Seth Barbour was named Cassill's new crew chief.

Barbour, who most recently was crew chief for Darrell Wallace Jr. in the Xfinity Series, comes to FRM from Roush Fenway Racing, and strengthens the technical alliance between the two teams.

That, Cassill said, is the essence of the move — and part of the evolution of the sport.

'All good race teams and drivers and crew chief combinations have had changes like this,' Cassill said. 'It's also a progression of the sport. … As teams progress and grow, with manpower and what it takes to make a car go fast, it's a little bit different. Roles change. But at the end of the day it's a change in job title, but not a change in value of the company for anyone.'

Barbour lost his spot atop the pitbox for Wallace and the No. 6 team when sponsorship dried up several weeks ago and their season effectively ended.

Barbour guided Wallace's team to seven top-10 finishes in 12 races this season after nine such finishes in a full season last year and seven top-10s in 13 races in 2015. He has one win as a crew chief — with Ryan Reed at Daytona in 2015 — and served as the race engineer on two NXS championship-winning teams with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Even with 13 years at Roush Fenway, Barbour still is in a position to prove himself — just like Cassill — and despite his never having been a Cup crew chief, Cassill is confident in the work they'll do together because of that.

'It's a dynamic (with Roush) where we pay for a service but we still have to have the right people in place to get the most out of that service,' Cassill said. 'Clearly he's had success as an engineer and great success at the Xfinity level, so it's not that Cup racing is so foreign he won't be able to figure it out. What excites me about it is that he has as much to gain from having success at this as I do. He's got a lot of energy and youth and desire to win and climb the ladder, and so do I. There's a common goal there.'

Cassill has two top-20 finishes this season — 16th in the Daytona 500 and 19th on Saturday night at Daytona — and sits 33rd in points with an average finish of 26.5. It's been a frustrating year at a few points for Cassill, who's had multiple races where misfortune or mistakes have compounded upon themselves.

Something like a crew chief change aims directly at fixing just that.

Wingo now will oversee both Cassill's team and the No. 38 driven by David Ragan, and Cassill said his job description won't really change.

In essence, Wingo will have the traditional role of a crew chief, just on a macro level at FRM. He'll be able to manage roles within the team, and help make speed at the shop, Cassill said, as opposed to at the racetrack.

The fact that Wingo is as respected as he is both in the garage at large and at FRM's shop leads Cassill to believe this could work out better for everyone. Wingo's value to FRM — and Cassill's team — isn't reduced, just shifted.

The saying goes that a rising tide raises all boats, and Cassill said that's the idea with this move.

'We've been talking for a while about the team dynamic and how to improve the whole organization,' Cassill said. 'I think over the couple months, we all felt like Donnie would be good for that role because his leadership within the team is really strong.

'It's the way the tide is moving in the sport.'

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