SHANE THEODORE WILSON - 11/03/1968
Wilson began his career in Vermont, building race cars before earning a driver's license. In 1988, he won a local touring division championship along with Brian Kenyon. In 1989, Wilson joined Alsup Racing of the American Canadian Tour as a mechanic for Mike Bachelor. Four years later, Wilson joined the NASCAR All-Pro Series and subsequently worked with Hendrick Motorsports in the Craftsman Truck Series. In 2000, Wilson joined Orleans Racing as the crew chief and general manager for Brendan Gaughan, and won two K&N Pro Series West titles. 2002 saw Gaughan and Wilson go full time NASCAR racing. They ran the full schedule and won twice. 2003 was an even better season as they claimed six wins and finished fourth in the points. The following year the pair made the big step up to the Cup series driving for Penske Racing. In 36 starts they only finished inside the Top 5 once. In 2005 Gaughan was replaced by Travis Kvapil and they did no better; only finishing in the Top 10 twice. As 2006 rolled in Wilson was hired by Richard Childress Racing to work with Kevin Harvick in the Xfinity series. They visited victory lane eight times and won the Xfinity Championship. They posted 24 Top 10’s in 26 races. In 2007 Childress fielded a car and split the driving duties among various drivers. Kevin Harvick ran the most races (14) and won six races. The other five drivers only finished inside the Top 5 three times. The following year RCR employed the same strategy, but without Harvick on the drivers roster. The four drivers failed to post a win and only had three Top 5 finishes. RCR moved Wilson up to the Cup Series with
Clint Bowyer in 2009 and failed to win a race. 2010 they showed improvement as they won at Loudon NH; and in 2011 they won at Talladega. In 2012, Wilson reunited with Harvick as the interim crew chief, after Harvick requested for Gil Martin's removal. The pair had earned two consecutive third-place finishes, but after failed to win a race, Wilson was reassigned to Paul Menard's team prior to the Irwin Tools Night Race. For the final three races of the season, Wilson replaced Drew Blickensderfer as Jeff Burton's crew chief after Menard's crew chief Slugger Labbe returned from a suspension. As a result, after the 2012 AAA Texas 500, Wilson has served as crew chief for all three RCR teams. 2013 saw Wilson again team up with Brendan Gaughan in the NASCAR Truck series. They came close to winning several times; and posted 10 Top 5 finishes. The following season saw Childress move Gaughan and Wilson up to race in the Xfinity series. They would win twice and finish eighth in the points. They remained together in the Xfinity series through 2017. During that time they wasn’t able to visit victory lane. Over that span they were only able to have nine Top 5 finishes. For 2018 Wilson moved to JGL Racing and led the organization’s newest driver, Kaz Grala. Grala would post two Top 5 and five Top 10 finishes. He moved to work for owner / driver Ryan Sieg for 2019. They ran well and had two Top 5 and 12 Top 10 finishes. In 2020, Kevin Starland started out as Sieg's crew chief; and Wilson went to the Truck Series to work with driver Tanner Gray, and owner David Gilliland. On the year they finished a best of third on three occasions; those coming at Michigan, Bristol and Las Vegas. They also had eight top ten results and finished 14th in points. In 2021 the duo started the season paired together again. That only lasted for six races. Seth Smith replaced Wilson; as Wilson went back to lead the efforts of Ryan Sieg. They made 13 starts together and had three top tens, and nine top 20 results. Shane Wilson started the season working for owner Bill McAnally and guiding driver Derek Kraus in the Truck series in 2022. The pair was together for the first 14 races after Kraus' previous crew chief, Mike Hillman, moved to MHR's new second truck; the #91 driven by Colby Howard. After a crash at the first race; and a lead lap 24th place finish at Las Vegas, the duo placed ninth at Atlanta. Except for a crash at Texas and a 29th place finish at Bristol on the dirt; the pair had good runs with nothing worse than 19th the next nine races; including a pair of top tens. They finished sixth at Knoxville on the dirt and added an 11th before Wilson was let go. After losing his job with McAnally, Wilson would join Bassett Racing as the crew chief of their part-time #77 car in the Xfinity Series, driven by brothers Ronnie Bassett Jr. and Dillon Bassett. In August, Wilson left the team for ThorSport Racing to replace Hensley as Matt Crafton's crew chief. In the season final six races Crafton and Wilson paired together to have one top five and three top ten results. They completed all but one lap in their time together. Wilson started off the season as crew chief for Matt Crafton. They made a pretty good pair as they finished ninth at Daytona, followed by an 11th and another ninth. A crash at COTA saw them finish 33, but they picked back up when they finished 13th at Texas, and had a fourth place run at Bristol. They were only together for eleven races before Jeriod Prince took over. In their eleven starts together they had nine finishes of 12th or better and were seventh in the points.
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