TRAVIS PETERSON - ?/?/?
In 2023, veteran lead race engineer Travis Peterson will assume the new crew chief duties for the #34 after spending the last five seasons at Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing (RFK) working with drivers Chris Buescher, Ryan Newman, and Matt Kenseth. Prior to his time at RFK, Peterson served as a race engineer at Hendrick Motorsports for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and JR Motorsports. Former #34 car chief, Ryan Bergenty, has been promoted to Performance Director. Raised in Kannapolis, N.C., Peterson was born to be a crew chief. Moving with his family to North Carolina from Wisconsin as a child so his father could work at Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), Peterson spent his high school years at the race shop learning his craft. He later graduated from UNC Charlotte with a degree in Mechanical Engineering while doing his internship at JGR. Peterson, 31, quickly rose to the ranks of a race engineer at JR Motorsports and Hendrick Motorsports for Dale Earnhardt Jr. before becoming the lead race engineer for the #17 team at RFK. Peterson was called upon to
be the crew chief for the #17 in 2022, and has earned two top-10 finishes as a crew chief in the Cup Series in only five races. Additionally, Peterson has wins and a championship in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and several wins in the NASCAR Cup Series as a race engineer. In 2023, Peterson took the reigns of the #34 Ford Mustang team that is coming off a season with 12 top-10 and two top-five finishes. Things got off to a slow start with only one finish better than 18th the first five races. Things started to take a turn when they finished 12th at COTA; then had a sixth at Richmond and an eleventh at Bristol on the dirt. Another top ten at St Louis, was followed by seventh place runs at Sonoma and Chicago. They got their first top five at Atlanta, and when NASCAR went to race on the road course at Indy; McDowell led 54 laps and got the win. In the Chase, bad runs at Darlington and Kansas saw them eliminated after the first round. Peterson was again teamed with McDowell in 2024. They wasn't able to break out and get a win like they did the previous year, as their best finish was a second at Sonoma. They also had a top five run at Chicago. The duo put together seven top ten runs on the season. About mid-season McDowell announced he was going to depart Front Row Racing at the end of the year. He said he had enjoyed his time with the organization, but it was time to move on. FRR hated to see him leave since he had shown so much leadership and helped propel the organization to be more competitive. McDowell will be moving to Spire Motorsports to drive the #71 previously driven by Zane Smith. Peterson will be moving along to Spire with him.
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