Rodden to serve as crew chief for A. Dillon at RCR

Richard Childress Racing has hired Keith Rodden to be Austin Dillon’s crew chief in the NASCAR Cup Series beginning next season.

Rodden replaces Justin Alexander, who announced last month he wanted to come off the pit box of the No. 3 team. Rodden was most recently a part of the motorsports competition department for Chevrolet’s NASCAR teams but has previously served as a Cup Series crew chief for organizations like Chip Ganassi, Richard Petty, Red Bull and Hendrick Motorsports.

“The addition of Keith Rodden to the Richard Childress Racing team highlights the ‘One Team’ approach to our race program and the commitment that our manufacturer partner has made to elevating all of the Chevy NASCAR teams with a shared approach to data gathering and technical development,” said Andy Petree, vice president of competition for Richard Childress Racing. “I’ve known and worked with Keith Rodden since the beginning of his NASCAR career, and I can confidently say that he will be a great match for Austin Dillon and our team at Richard Childress Racing. We’d like to thank Justin Alexander for his contributions to the No. 3 team and know that he will do a great job continuing to support RCR in his new role.”

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Rodden was last a Cup Series crew chief in 2017 at Hendrick Motorsports with Kasey Kahne. The duo won at Indianapolis, which is Rodden’s lone win. In 2020, Rodden served as William Byron’s crew chief for one race in a substitute role. He will be the fifth different crew chief Dillon has worked with since becoming a full-time driver in 2014.

With the hiring of Rodden, RCR announced that Alexander will become the director of vehicle performance.

“In working with Richard Childress Racing, and in particular the No. 3 team, over the years, I’ve been really impressed with their competitive nature, dedication to hard work and emphasis on partner relationships,” said Rodden. “I’m looking forward to getting back into a team crew chief role and doing so with one of the strongest teams in the Team Chevy family.”