STEPHEN  DORAN  -  ?/?/? -

Doran moved from Butler, Pennsylvania to Level Cross, North Carolina in 2006, where he started at Petty Enterprises.  Since 2012, he worked for Stewart-Haas Racing, and has been a member of the #4 team since 2014; and most recently worked on Kevin Harvick’s car at Stewart-Haas Racing.  He was an engineer on the #4 car in 2023.  He got to call six races on occasions when Rodney Childers was suspended.  In 2022 he worked with Harvick on three occasions.  They finished all three races in the top 16 with a best finish of eighth at Homestead.  Working under such a successful crew chief as Childers, Doran should have learned a lot and be able to get as much performance out of his car and driver as possible.  Doran has been hired by Spire Motorsports to be the crew chief of the #71 car, and it’s driver Zane Smith, who is moving up from the Truck series.  Smith was the Truck series champion in 2022.  The #71 team is a collaboration between Spire, and TrackHouse Racing for 2024.  In September, TrackHouse announced a multi-year agreement with Smith and it’s aim to run three full time Cup series cars in 2025.  2024 was Doran's first full time gig as a NASCAR crew 

chief. He was paired with Zane Smith in the Cup series.  They finished 13th when the season opened in the Daytona 500.  But Smith showed it would take some time for him to get used to the Cup cars.  Over the next 13 races, they had a best finish of 19th.  He was 19th again at St Louis, and followed with a 16th place finish the next week at Sonoma. The duo had a surprising run at Nashville when they started 36th, but worked their way through the field and had an impressive second place run.  As the Cup stars made their way back to the track for the second time that season, Smith showed he had learned a lot and his finishes improved.  The first half of the season, he had just one top ten finish.  The second half of the year he had a top five and three top ten runs.  His runs outside the top ten greatly improved also, as they had ten finishes inside the top 20.  For 2025 Doran will move to work for Track House Racing and lead the efforts of rookie Shane van Gisbergen.

 

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