Austin Dillon will have a new crew chief starting this weekend, as Justin Alexander will replace Richard "Slugger" Labbe, Richard Childress Racing announced Monday.
Labbe had worked with Dillon since June 2015, and Dillon made the NASCAR Cup playoffs in 2016, where he finished 14th in the standings. But Dillon has had a rough start in the first 11 races of 2017, sitting 22nd in the standings and 57 points out of the current playoff cutoff with 15 races left in the regular season.
Labbe, who has more than 20 years of experience as a NASCAR crew chief and joined RCR in 2010, has left the organization, according to a team news release.
Alexander has served in several roles at RCR, including as a former Cup crew chief for Paul Menard from end of the 2014 season to August 2016. Most recently, he has worked as a crew chief for the RCR No. 2 car in the Xfinity Series, which Dillon has driven several times this year. Dillon won the August 2016 Xfinity race at Bristol with Alexander as his crew chief, and Alexander also won at Road America last year with Michael McDowell as the driver.
Replacing Alexander will be Randall Burnett, who was crew chief up until last week for JTG Daugherty Racing driver AJ Allmendinger, who is 30th in the Cup standings. RCR and JTG Daugherty have a technical alliance. Burnett was replaced by JTG competition director Ernie Cope.