Fantasy NASCAR Racing

the Chase, it was deemed hisWaltrip Racing team-mate spun himself out intentionally to create a yellow flag and thus bunch up the field.  NASCAR intercepted team radio communications that seemed to indicate this was an intentional attempt to help Truex make the Chase.  Brian Vickers was also ordered to pit (for no reason) to help to allow Truex to make the Chase.  Truex qualified for the Chase taking the final position.  All three MWR teams were penalized 50 points Waltrip Racing was also hit with a $300,000 fine (the largest in racing history.  The 50 point penalty moved Truex out of the final Chase position down to 17th in the points at the cut-off, and thus he missed the Chase.  This gave Ryan Newman the final Chase spot.  In addition with all the controversy, NASCAR made an unprecedented move and added a 13th car to the Chase (Jeff Gordon).  It was determined Truex's team was an innocent victim of the rules infractions, but since the issues was caused by his team mates and to benefit him; he was also penalized.  Johnston remained with Truex through the 2013 season, but with seven races to go in the season he asked for his release from Waltrip Racing.  Johnston replaced Steve Addington on the No. 14 Chevy driven by Tony Stewart for 2014; Addington had been the crew chief for the past two seasons.  The duo struggled and only posted three Top 5 finishes in two season.  In 2016 he was hired by Chip Ganassi to call the shots for Kyle Larson.  Larson his first race that season under the leadership of Johnston and made the Chase; eventually finishing ninth in the points.  The following season Larson and Johnston pair to win on four occasions and post 14 Top 5 finishes.  Ganassi had the pair together again for the 2018 season, and after a good 2017 Chad Johnston had expected to lead his driver to another successful season and a possible Championship. But after four wins the previous season, 2018 proved to be a disappointment. The pair wasn't able to get a win but had six second place finishes, and 12 Top 5's. They made the Chase on points; but was eliminated after the second round. They ended the season ninth in points.  2019 started off much the same way that 2018 had gone.  The team struggled with speed and only had one top five result through the first 16 races of the season.  Larson had started trying to carry the car to make up for it's lack of speed and was over driving it and then crashing.  This made matters worse because the team could not learn anything working on a wrecked race car as he crashed out four times in a seven race span.  He finished second at Chicago; added a fourth at Kentucky before crashing again at New Hampshire.  From there they seemed to get into a rhythm as seven of the next eight races he placed no worse than eighth.  He used that stretch to make the playoffs via points.   When round two of the Chase kicked off Johnston gave Larson a fast car, and he took it to victory lane.  This locked them into round three with a shot to make the finale'.  In the third round Larson finished ninth, tweleveth, and fourth; but even that didn't get them enough points to make it into the championship race at Miami.  In that race Larson would blow a motor and finish last.  The season kicked off with Johnston and Larson paired together looking for a great season.  They had three Top 10 finishes in the first four races; including a fourth at Phoenix.  Then the coronavirus struck.  NASCAR shut down racing while people struggled with closures of businesses; schools and sporting events.  During this time Kyle run afoul of NASCAR rules and lost his ride with Ganassi Racing. Matt Kenseth was brought in to wheel the #42 the rest of the season.  The pair had a miserable season as Kenseth only had two Top 10 finishes including a second place finish at Indianapolis.  After 16 races Johnston was replaced by Phil Surgen to work with Kenseth the remainder of the year.  With one race to go in the 2020 ARCA Menards Series West season, Johnston was picked up by DGR-Crosley to crew chief their #17 Ford of Taylor Gray in the season-finale at Phoenix, where Gray would finish third in this race. Johnston stayed on with the team, now just known as David Gilliland Racing, in 2021, crew chiefing Gray in his full season in the ARCA Menards Series East and part-time schedule in the main ARCA Menards Series. Also, the team announced that Gray would make his Truck Series debut in 2021, driving the #17 Ford part-time, and Johnston would also crew chief Gray in that series.  Chad Johnston worked with a quartet of drivers in the Truck series in 2022.  One race each with Harrison Burton and Riley Herbst; which saw neither finish in the top ten.  He led Taylor Gray for eight events and they had a best finish of sixth at Richmond.  Finally, he worked with the young hot-shoe Ryan Preece in six events.  The pair were magic in their limited time together.  Their first run they finished fourth at Las Vegas.  Next was a third at Texas, before an 11th place run at Charlotte.  Then they had a second at Pocono; followed by a third at Kansas.  The final run saw then add another top five finish when they were fourth at Homestead.  Preece moved to run full time in the Cup series in 2023 and Johnston went with him.  Preece had earned his shot doing a lot of testing and SIM work in 2022, and when Cole Custer did poorly that year, Preece was called up to take his place.  But the whole SHR team struggled in 2023.  It was the first time the whole team got shut out since it was created.  Preece and Johnson only got one top five finish in 2023; but that’s about as good as any of his teammates did.  They did produce 12 top 15 runs., and will be back together in 2024.