Clifton Oliver Daniels (born June 30, 1988) is an American crew chief who works for

Hendrick Motorsports Hendrick Motorsports is an American professional auto racing organization that competes in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team was founded in 1984 as All-Star Racing by Rick Hendrick. Hendrick Motorsports has won a NASCAR-record 316 Cup Series ra ...

as the crew chief of their No. 5

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 The Chevrolet Camaro is a mid-size American automobile manufactured by Chevrolet, classified as a pony car. It first went on sale on September 29, 1966, for the 1967 model year and was designed to compete with the Ford Mustang. The Camaro shar ...

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

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. ...

Racing career

Cliff Daniels had a short racing career as a driver, racing model cars at short tracks in his home state of Virginia before pursuing a mechanical engineering degree at

University of North Carolina at Charlotte The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte, or simply Charlotte) is a public research university in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. UNC Charlotte offers 24 doctoral, 66 master's, and 79 bachelor's degree programs thr ...

. After graduating, he joined

RAB Racing RAB Racing with Brack Maggard was an American professional stock car racing team that attempted races in the NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series, Craftsman Truck Series and the ARCA Menards Series. The team was co-owned by Robert A. Benton Sr. and h ...

in 2011. He then moved to Stewart-Haas Racing, where he served as the race engineer of the No. 14

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...

driven by

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 ...

from 2013 to 2014. In December 2014, Daniels moved to

to serve as the race engineer of the No. 48 Chevrolet 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 ...

, helping Johnson win the 2016 Sprint Cup Series Championship. Following the 2018 season, Daniels moved to Hendrick's competition systems group before rejoining the No. 48 team at Sonoma in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

. On July 29, 2019, following a string of disappointing finishes during the 2019 season, Hendrick Motorsports announced that Daniels would replace

Kevin Meendering Kevin John Meendering (born March 17, 1981) is an American NASCAR crew chief who works for Hendrick Motorsports as the crew chief of their No. 17 Chevrolet Camaro in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, which is fielded part-time for Kyle Larson, Alex Bowm ...

as the crew chief of the No. 48. On October 28, 2020, Daniels was announced to become the crew chief for No. 5 of

. The 5 car would replace the No. 48 in 2021. On March 7, 2021, Daniels earned his first win as a crew chief in the 2021 Pennzoil 400. He won his first championship as a crew chief in 2021 at Phoenix. On June 14, 2022, Daniels was suspended for four races due to a tire and wheel loss during the Sonoma race. On March 15, 2023, NASCAR suspended all four

crew chiefs (Daniels,

Alan Gustafson Alan Arthur Gustafson (born August 5, 1975) is an American NASCAR Cup Series crew chief who works for Hendrick Motorsports as the crew chief of their No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 driven by Chase Elliott in the NASCAR Cup Series. He and Elliott won ...

Rudy Fugle Ryan Scott "Rudy" Fugle (born April 11, 1984) is an American NASCAR Crew chief (auto racing), crew chief who works for Hendrick Motorsports as the crew chief of their No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in the NASCAR Cup Series driven by William Byron (ra ...

and Blake Harris) as well as

Kaulig Racing Kaulig Racing is an American professional stock car racing team that competes in the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series. The team is owned by Matt Kaulig, an owner of team sponsor LeafFilter. Kaulig Racing fields three Cup Series Chevrol ...

No. 31 car crew chief

Trent Owens William Trent Owens (born January 4, 1975) is an American former stock car racing driver and crew chief who works for Kaulig Racing as the crew chief for their No. 16 Chevrolet ZL1 driven by A. J. Allmendinger in the NASCAR Cup Series. He was ...

for four races after it was discovered during practice for the race at Phoenix in March that the hood louvers on all five cars were illegally modified. As a result, each team received an L2 penalty (a loss of 100 driver and owner points as well as the four-race crew chief suspension).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Daniels, Cliff Living people People from Isle of Wight County, Virginia NASCAR crew chiefs 1988 births University of North Carolina at Charlotte alumni People from Smithfield, Virginia