BILLY WILBURN - 07/11/1966
an American NASCAR crew chief. Growing up in the heart of stock car racing, Wilburn had an immediate love for the sport. It wasn’t long before Wilburn was able to translate his desire of racing into a full-time profession. He soon found himself working on a Dash Series car. Wilburn soaked in as much valuable information as possible and quickly learned the ins-and-outs of preparing a winning stock car. Wilburn took that experience to his first professional job, Stewart Racing, in 1984. Wilburn worked with driver Geoff Bodine and later with Rusty Wallace. Wilburn would later team with Wallace, but first Wilburn branched out to define his skills. The following two seasons Wilburn worked with ‘The King’ Richard Petty at both Curb Motorsports and Petty Enterprises. Wilburn was searching for a place to shine and landed at Hendrick Motorsports from 1988-1990. He worked closely with driver Darrell Waltrip. At the end of 1990 things finally became clear for Wilburn. He accepted a position at Penske Racing South and became a fixture at the organization. Wilburn hit the pinnacle of his career in 2002 after Wallace personally picked Wilburn to lead his team as crew chief. The first time in his race career he had held the crew chief position. Wilburn was a racer in the World of Outlaws series while being a pit crew member from Rusty Wallace, he quit driving full time when he became Rusty's crew chief. He also attempted one Craftsman Truck Series race as a driver in his career. That came in 1997, when Wilburn attempted to make the race at Phoenix. However, he did not qualify for the event. His first time on top of the
war wagon came in 2002 withWallace at the car's controls. They would post seven Top 7 finishes along with 17 Top 10’s; adding three second place finishes. He led Wallace for two season, but did not produce any wins. Wilburn left as one of the organization’s most successful employees at the end of 2004. In 2005 Wilburn was appointed the crew chief of the #88 Robert Yates Racing Ford team with driver Dale Jarrett. This was for 16 races in the middle of the season and they had two Top 5 finishes. Clay Andrews hired Wilburn for head up his team that raced part time Xfinity team with driver David Gilliland. The claimed an upset win at Kentucky; the only win for either of them. Wilburn was hired by Petty Enterprises late in the 2006 season and called back up to the Cup series. He and Petty formed a stout combination at the end of the 2006 season. Wilburn led Petty through the rest of the season that culminated with a remarkable run back inside the top-35 in owner points. From 2008 through 2011 Wilburn spent his time in all three of NASCAR's upper series being the crew chief for several different drivers seeing action mostly in the Xfinity and Truck series. Wilburn was hired by Kevin Harvick in 2009 to lead a part time team in the truck series. Ricky Carmichael was able to post one Top 10 finish as a high point. Todd Braun hired Wilburn in 2010 to make the calls for his driver Brian Scott. They had one Top 5 and five Top 10 finishes before being replaced by Crew chief Jeff Stankiewicz. The following season Wilburn was picked up by owner / driver Joe Nemechek to replace crew chief Steven Gray. They were able to get one Top 10 finish. Wilburn had been with Hendrick Motorsports previously and got the opportunity to get back to HMS by working with Chase Elliott when they took the K&N stuff he was running back in-house. JR Motorsports (owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr) works closely with Rick Hendrick (owner of HMS) in their race operations. In 2014 Wilburn went to JR Motorsports, as the car chief on Regan Smith’s #7 Chevrolet for the Earnhardt-owned team. Crew chief Jason Burdett calls the shots, but Billy makes them happen. Since Wilburn has been car chief at Jr Motorsports the teams have won two Xfinity series Championships (2014 with Chase Elliott and 2017 with William Byron); finished second in the Xfinity series points (2015, 2016, and 2017); and finished third in points (2016 and 2017). They have garnered 26 Xfinity wins as 2018 kicked off. Wilburn worked part-time in the truck series, returning to the top of the pit box since 2018. He was paired with Taylor Gray, but Gray was kept out of the truck the first three races due to age restrictions. Sammy Smith drove at Daytona, ran a good race and finished 14th. John Hunter Nemechek ran the next two events; had mechanical issues at Las Vegas, but finished third at Atlanta. Then Gray took over the controls for the next ten events. The pair had their best finish at Martinsville when they finished eighth. They also had a ninth and tenth place finish. They had six finishes inside the top 14. Jacob Hampton took over a crew chief for Gray starting at Mid-Ohio. No word on what Wilburn will do in 2024.
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