Champion Crew Chief Profile: Bob Mueller
At the sport’s pinnacle, Chad Knaus has earned five-consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series titles as crew chief for driver Jimmie Johnson. Similarly, in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, Bob Mueller has called the shots for three of the last four championship-winning teams for car owner Bob Garbarino and Mystic Missile Racing.
Unlike the combination of Knaus and Johnson, Mueller has had to achieve his success with multiple drivers. Donny Lia drove the No. 4 “Mystic Missile” to the championship in 2007 and 2009 and the third crown was earned in his first year working with Bobby Santos in 2010. Chuck Hossfeld also slid into the seat in 2008 and put together a solid season that resulted in a pair of wins and a top five overall finish.
The net result of working with three drivers in four years: 59 races, 44 top 10s, 16 wins, three championships.
“The bottom line is, our team has pretty much been the same all four years,” Mueller said. “The nucleus of the team has been solid, and by bringing in the different drivers, it wasn’t that hard for me. From Donny to Chuck to Bobby, the feel and what they wanted in the car wasn’t that different. It was just basically fine-tuning around each one of them.”
Santos appreciated how welcomed he felt from the time he signed on with Garbarino, and clicked with Mueller right away.
“Bob was real easy to work with,” Santos said of Mueller. “He’s a great guy, and he just made awesome decisions all year. I couldn’t have asked for a better crew chief than him.”
Mueller also knew he had a good driver to work with from the beginning of the partnership.
“I felt from the time he signed on with us that he definitely had a lot of raw talent,” Mueller said. “He’s a very quick learner. He really impressed me. I knew he would go fast, I knew we would win poles and I knew we could win races.”
Sources; Jason Cunningham/NASCAR WMT PR