Veteran crew chief Manion takes over Ty Dillon's No. 77 team

Kevin Manion will serve as Ty Dillon’s interim crew chief, replacing Kevin Bellicourt on the No. 77 team at Spire Motorsports beginning this weekend at Richmond Raceway.

Dillon is 32nd in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings and is coming off a 28th-place finish Sunday at Pocono Raceway. The No. 77 team has just two top-20 finishes through 21 races, and Dillon’s season-best result is a 14th-place at Talladega Superspeedway.

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“We really want that car to get going and, unfortunately, we had to make a change,” Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson said. “We’ve agonized watching and waiting for the results to mirror the effort Ty and the 77 team puts into their program.

“Expectations are a funny thing. They’re a blessing and a curse and, for whatever reasons, those expectations aren’t being met. We all know, Kevin Bellicourt included, what happens at this point of the season when we are, where we are, in the overall standings. Kevin has put in a lot of hard work and has been with us from the beginning of our journey, so this decision was difficult and not taken lightly.

“At the end of the day, we are what our results say we are. We need a spark to give this team every opportunity to progress and ultimately succeed. We’re incredibly fortunate to have someone as accomplished as Bono already in-house.

“That said, we admit, it might not change the trajectory of the season for the No. 77 team. However, doing nothing, although tidier and more comfortable, especially with the relationships involved, clearly is not an option for us anymore and we are keen to see improvement. There is a lot of racing left in 2023 and it’s imperative that we’re raising the bar every week.”

Manion has won races in all three NASCAR national series with drivers such as Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurray, Kyle Busch, and William Byron. He was the crew chief who guided Truex to back-to-back Xfinity Series race championships in 2004-2005 and won the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 with McMurray in 2010.

Because he also oversees the No. 7 Spire Motorsports entry in the Craftsman Truck Series, Manion will not call the shots for Dillon at Daytona International Speedway next month. Manion will be with the Truck Series team in Milwaukee the same weekend.

It will be the only Cup Series race of the 15 left on the schedule that Manion will not work with Dillon.