KEVIN J MEENDERING - 03/17/1981
Meendering's first crew chief job came with JR Motorsports, who he worked for from 2016 to 2018 as the crew chief of their #1 Chevrolet driven by Elliott Sadler in the Xfinity Series. Sadler claimed three wins and two second place finishes in 2016. A very successful start for Meendering. The duo made the final race to run for the championship. Daniel Suarez won the race with Sadler finishing third; second in the points. They finished with the three wins, 13 top five and 28 top ten finishes in 33 starts. Their second year together in 2017 they went win-less. They finished second at Talladega and Daytona; had 12 top five and 25 top ten finishes. Once again, they made the final race for the championship at Phoenix. Cole Custer was dominant leading 182 laps, and won the race. William Byron finished third to win the championship when Sadler finished eighth and was again the runner-up for the championship. 2018 was a year much like the previous one. They failed to get a win, but had two second place finishes. Once again, they had a great many top five finishes (14) and top ten (24) runs. But this year they failed to make it into the final race for the championship, and finished fifth in the points. On October 10, 2018, it was
announced that Hendrick Motorsports would split up the legendary driver/crew chief pair of Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus starting in 2019 after they had a dismal 2018 season. Meendering was announced as Johnson's new crew chief for 2019 and that Knaus would replace Darian Grubb (who moved into a technical director position for HMS) as the crew chief of Hendrick's #24 car driven by William Byron. Meendering and Johnson were together only 21 races. On July 29, 2019, following a string of disappointing finishes during the 2019 season, Hendrick Motorsports announced that the #48 car's engineer, Cliff Daniels, would replace Meendering as the crew chief of the #48. Meendering would be moved to a different unspecified role at Hendrick after he was relieved of his crew chief job. Together Meendering and Johnson had three top five and eight top ten finishes. For the season Johnson only had three top five and 12 top tens. On June 2, 2022, Hendrick Motorsports announced that Meendering would return to crew chiefing for the first time since 2019 as he would be the crew chief of the team's new part-time Xfinity Series car, the #17. This is HMS “All Star” car that only makes periodic starts. He led two starts for Kyle Larson and once each for William Byron and Alex Bowman. Larsons two starts saw him finish second and fifth. Bowman also finished second in his start. Byron led 35 laps in his start, before having issues and finishing 25th. Also in 2022, on June 20, HMS announced that Meendering would also serve as the interim crew chief for Kyle Larson's #5 car in the Cup Series after Cliff Daniels was suspended for four races; due to the car losing a tire and wheel during the race at Sonoma. In those four starts, Meendering led Larson to two top five finishes. On March 8, 2023, Hendrick announced that Meendering would return to be the crew chief of their part-time Xfinity Series car for just one start. The #17 was driven by Larson and finished third at Sonoma. Kevin would also return to be the interim crew chief of their Cup Series #5 car of Larson, as Daniels was suspended again for four races after the team's L2 penalty for illegally modified hood louvers. The duo grabbed a win at Richmond where Larson led 93 laps, including the final 25. It is expected Meendering will serve the same role in 2024. As of the start of 2024, Meendering's older brother, Jeff, is also a NASCAR crew chief. Jeff works for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series as the crew chief for their #18 car driven by Sammy Smith. The Meendering brothers are from Marne, Michigan.
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