TONY FURR - 08/12/?
first became a crew chief in the Cup Series in 1994 when he was hired by DK Ulrich to head up Greg Sacks. The pair ran 31 races and posted three Top 10 finishes. He was hired by Cale Yarborough to lead Jeremy Mayfield in the 1995 and 1996 seasons. They could only post two Top 5 finishes in those two seasons. Yarborough hired John Andretti for 1997 and he and Francis grabbed a win at Daytona in the 400. Furr moved to Hendrick Motorsports in 1998 and worked with three different drivers there. He started the season with Ricky Craven; but was moved to work with Randy Lajoie; and later he was paired with Wally Dallenbach for the final 16 events. For 1999 he led the efforts of Dallenbach for the entire season; but they posted only one Top 5 finish. In 2000 he worked with Jerry Nadeau and they won the season ending race at Atlanta. The next season saw them post four Top 5 finishes; but produced no wins. After four races in the 2002 season, Furr announced that he was stepping down as crew chief of the No. 25 Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) team to pursue other opportunities in NASCAR Cup Series competition. Furr moved to work for owner Jim Smith and young driver Casey Atwood. Atwood had ran great in the Xfinity Series; but many thought it was too soon to move Atwood up to the Cup Series. Those thoughts might have been true as his best finish was 11th, with only five Top 20 finishes. 2003 saw Furr move to owner Gene Haas who fielded a series of
drivers that season. John Andretti, Ward Burton, Jason Leffler and Jack Sprague all raced for Haas; and none of them posted a single Top 10 finish. He led Ward Burton in 2004 for 18 races and had two Top 10 finishes in the first 18 races, before being let go and replaced by Billy Ingle. Furr stepped down to crew chief in the Truck series in 2005 for owner Tom Eldrege and driver Todd Bodine; before moving after just nine races to work for owner Jeff Wyler and driver Jack Sprague. He posted two Top 5 finishes with each driver. In 2006 and 2007 he stayed with Wyler / Sprague and they won two events in 2006 and added another in 2007. He was on the sidelines in 2008; but in 2009 Jeremy Mayfield had started his own team and he hired Furr for five events where they did not show any decent results. 2010 again saw him on the sidelines; but in 2011 he went to work for owner Dusty Whitney opening the season with JJ Yeley. The owner seemed to be more of a start-n-park as all of Yeleys finishes were 37th or worse. Scott Speed also started ten races and had a best finish of 33rd. Bill Elliott ran one race (Talladega) and finished on the lead lap; albeit in 23rd spot. Yeley and Furr moved in 2012 to work for owners Robinson-Blakeney Racing. Again they posted poor finishes with a best of 33rd. They did attempt to run the full races; but had mechanical issues in 16 of their 20 races. Furr worked with Scott Riggs in 2013 for three events; before not calling the shots for anyone until 2017. Owner Rick Ware hired Furr to led a hand full of drivers in 2017. A under funded team; Ware didn't have the fire power to be competitive with the top teams and only qualified for 29 races. His drivers posted a best finish of 32nd. Late in the 2017 season Furr was hire by StarCom Racing for the final two races. For 2018, Tony Furr had a rough season. Calling the shots for a bevy of drivers on underfunded teams; he and nine different drivers paired up and struggled mightily. In race race that saw the yellow flag fly ten times for crashes; driver JJ Yeley was able to produce a season high 17th place finish. Furr's drivers only had two other finishes of 20th or better all of 2018. StarCom has purchased a Charter for the 2019 season, and it was expected Furr and Landon Cassill would pair up for StarCom in 2019; but it was not to be. In fact, through 2021, Furr has bounced around from series to series. He’s headed up a 13 starts in the Xfinity Series; and lead Willin Mullins in five starts in the ARCA Series.
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