Chad A. Johnston (born May 22, 1980) is an American

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

crew chief who works for

Legacy Motor Club Legacy Motor Club, formerly known as Petty GMS Motorsports, is an American professional stock car racing team owned by Jimmie Johnson with minority stakes by Richard Petty, Maury Gallagher, and Knighthead Capital Management. The team competes ...

as their Manager of Race Engineering as well as the crew chief of their No. 84

Toyota Camry The Toyota Camry (; Japanese: トヨタ・カムリ ''Toyota Kamuri'') is an automobile sold internationally by the Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota since 1982, spanning multiple generations. Originally compact in size (narrow-body), the Cam ...

XSE in the

NASCAR Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States. The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, ...

driven by

Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Kenneth Johnson (born September 17, 1975) is an American professional auto racing driver. He currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 84 Toyota Camry XSE for Legacy Motor Club. Johnson has won seven Cup ch ...

. He was previously a crew chief in the Cup Series for

Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing, LLC (CGR), also sometimes branded as Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, is an American auto racing organization competing in the NTT IndyCar Series. They have formerly competed in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, Global Rally ...

(the No. 42 of

Kyle Larson Kyle Miyata Larson (born July 31, 1992) is an American professional racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports, part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. ...

and later

Matt Kenseth Matthew Roy Kenseth (born March 10, 1972) is an American former professional stock car racing driver and the current competition advisor for Legacy Motor Club in the NASCAR Cup Series. Most recently, he raced part-time in the Superstar Racing Exper ...

), Stewart-Haas Racing (the No. 14 of

Tony Stewart Anthony Wayne Stewart (born May 20, 1971), nicknamed "Smoke", is an American semi-retired professional auto racing driver, and former NASCAR team co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing. He currently competes in the NHRA Top Fuel class. He is a four-t ...

and the No. 41 of

Ryan Preece Ryan Preece (born October 25, 1990) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 60 Ford Mustang (seventh generation), Ford Mustang Dark Horse for RFK Racing. Preece previous ...

), and

Michael Waltrip Racing Michael Waltrip Racing Holdings LLC, doing business as Michael Waltrip Racing ("MWR"), was an American professional stock car racing team that last competed full-time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The company was as a 50–50 partnership betwe ...

(the No. 56 of Martin Truex Jr.) and the

NASCAR Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck-based stock car racing, s ...

for David Gilliland Racing. Johnston was Truex's engineer prior to his promotion by MWR to crew chief midway through the 2011 season.

Racing career

2004–2010: Early / engineering career

After graduating college at

Indiana State University Indiana State University (ISU) is a public university in Terre Haute, Indiana, United States. It was founded in 1865 and offers over 100 undergraduate majors and more than 75 graduate and professional programs. Indiana State is classified ...

in 2004, Johnston got a job as an engineer for Morgan-Dollar Motorsports in the

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck-based stock cars. The series i ...

. Over the following years, Johnston became the engineer for teams such as

JTG Daugherty Racing Hyak Motorsports is an American stock car racing team that competes in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team fields the No. 47 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 full-time for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and has a technical alliance with Hendrick Motorsports. History The ...

and

Evernham Motorsports Evernham Motorsports was an American professional stock car racing organization that competed in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team was founded in 2000 by former Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Ray Evernham, entering full-time competition as a two-c ...

2011–2013: Michael Waltrip Racing

In 2011, while doing engineer work for

, Johnston became the crew chief for the No. 56 team, driven by Martin Truex Jr. Over the 19 races they were together, the pair got 1 pole, 2 top-5's, and 5 top-10's. The following year, in 2012, Johnston became Truex's full-time crew chief. Truex Jr. and Johnston finished off the season with 1 pole, 19 top-10's, and 7 top-5's. They would finish 11th in the point standings after making the Chase. In 2013, the pair returned to the No. 56 team. Midway through the season at Sonoma, the team won their first race. They would finish of the season with 1 win, 15 top-10's, 7 top-5's.

2014–2015: Stewart-Haas Racing

Johnston moved over to the No. 14 team for Stewart—Haas Racing, driven by

. However, midway through the season, Stewart decided not to drive for three races, being replaced by Regan Smith for the first of those races and

Jeff Burton Jeffrey Tyler Burton (born June 29, 1967), nicknamed "the Mayor", is an American former professional stock car racing driver and current racing commentator. He is a member of the Burton racing family. He scored 23 career victories in the NASCAR ...

for the next two after being involved in the death of Kevin Ward Jr. Stewart would return to the seat at

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. In 2015, Stewart and Johnston would pair up again. However, this season would prove to be a challenge for Stewart, as he would only be able to get 3 top-10's throughout the season, leading up to a 28th place finish in the points standings.

2016–2020: Chip Ganassi Racing

Johnston would again move teams in 2016, this time moving to the No. 42 team at

, driven by Kyle Larson. At

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

in the fall, Kyle Larson would get his first win in the Cup Series. The group would end up finishing the season with 1 win, 14 top-10's, and 9 top-5's leading up to a 9th place in the championship standings. Larson and Johnston would start off the 2017 season with 5 top 2's, one of them being a win. Larson would win 3 more times throughout the season, finishing 8th in the championship standings after having a lack of consistency in the playoffs. Johnston would remain as Larson's crew chief in 2018 and 2019. After a winless 2018 season, the two won at

Dover International Speedway Dover Motor Speedway (formerly known as the Dover International Speedway from 2002 to 2021 and as the Dover Downs International Speedway from 1969 to 2001) is a oval track in Dover, Delaware. The venue has hosted major events since its inaugu ...

in the fall. In 2020, Johnston would become the crew chief for

after Kyle Larson was suspended for saying a

racial slur The following is a list of ethnic slurs, ethnophaulisms, or ethnic epithets that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnic, national, or racial group or to refer to them in a derogatory, pejor ...

during a streamed

iRacing ''iRacing'' is a subscription-based online sim racing video game developed and published by iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations in 2008. All in-game sessions are hosted on the publisher's servers. The game simulates real world cars, tracks, and ...

event. Although he did score a second-place finish in the 2020 Brickyard 400 and a tenth place finish in his first race with the team at Darlington in May, Kenseth's return was largely a disappointment, and Johnston was released as the crew chief of the No. 42 on August 4 and replaced by the team's engineer since 2016, Phil Surgen, starting at the

doubleheader. Surgen also substituted for Johnston in the crew chief role for one race in 2016, also coincidentally at Michigan, where he would lead Larson and the team to a third place finish in that race. Johnston had been suspended due to the lug nut rule.

2020–2022: David Gilliland Racing

With one race to go in the

2020 ARCA Menards Series West The 2020 ARCA Menards Series West was the sixty-seventh season of the ARCA Menards Series West, a regional stock car racing series sanctioned by NASCAR. It began on February 20 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring with the Star Nursery 1 ...

season, Johnston was picked up by DGR-Crosley to crew chief their No. 17 Ford of Taylor Gray in the season-finale at Phoenix, where Gray would finish third in this race. Johnston stayed on with the team, now just known as David Gilliland Racing, in 2021, crew chiefing Gray in his full season in the

ARCA Menards Series East The ARCA Menards Series East (formerly known by other names) is a regional stock car racing series owned and operated by the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) and the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). Races are h ...

and part-time schedule in the main

ARCA Menards Series The ARCA Menards Series is an American stock car racing, stock car series, the premier division of the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). It is considered a minor, semi-professional league of stock car racing, used as a feeder series into ...

. In 2020, it was announced by DGR-Crosley that Taylor Gray would make his Truck Series debut in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, driving the No. 17 Ford part-time, and Johnston would be Gray's crew chief.

2023–2024: Stewart-Haas Racing

In December 2022, Johnston returned to Stewart—Haas Racing and the

after it was announced that driver,

would replace

Cole Custer Cole Matthew Custer (born January 23, 1998) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 41 Ford Mustang (seventh generation), Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Haas Factory Team. H ...

in the No. 41 for the 2023 season. Johnston and Preece previously worked together in the Truck Series with David Gilliland Racing, having won together twice, at

Nashville Superspeedway Nashville Superspeedway is a tri-oval intermediate speedway in Lebanon, Tennessee. The track has held a variety of racing events since its opening in 2001, including NASCAR and the IndyCar Series. It is currently owned by Speedway Motorsport ...

in 2021 and 2022.

2025–present: Legacy Motor Club

When SHR closed down after the 2024 season, Johnston was hired by

days after the 2024 season-finale at Phoenix to be the team's Manager of Race Engineering. On February 5, 2025, it was announced that Johnson would crew chief LMC's No. 84 for

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Chad Living people NASCAR crew chiefs Indiana State University alumni People from Vermillion County, Indiana Year of birth missing (living people)