Crew Chief Todd Gordon to Retire After 2021 Season

Championship-winning crew chief Todd Gordon is set to retire after the conclusion of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Gordon announced his retirement Monday morning on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Gordon has served as crew chief for the No. 12 Team Penske group of Ryan Blaney since the beginning of the 2020 season.

“It’s just one of those things that you look at any life and there’s several chapters in it,” Gordon told SiriusXM. “It’s been an awesome run here at Team Penske, and really, really happy and fortunate to have the opportunities that I’ve had here, but when you look at it going forward, this is my 23rd year down here in NASCAR and 10 years in Cup Series and just made a family decision that this’ll be my last year sitting on the pit box.”

The veteran crew chief owns 23 race victories in the Cup Series, which include two with current driver Blaney and 21 with No. 22 Team Penske driver Joey Logano. Gordon won the championship with Logano in 2018 after a three-win year that produced 13 top fives and 26 top 10s.

Gordon, who joined Team Penske in December 2010, also served as crew chief for AJ Allmendinger and Sam Hornish Jr. during the 2012 Cup Series season.

Along with his 10-year tenure at NASCAR’s highest level, Gordon spent seven years as a crew chief in the Xfinity Series, beginning in 2005 with drivers Michel Jourdain Jr. and Brent Sherman for team owner Greg Pollex. Other drivers he worked with during that span included Todd Kluever, Kenny Wallace, Jason Keller, Kyle Krisiloff, Marc Mitchell, Scott Lagasse Jr., Brad Keselowski, Parker Kligerman and Jacques Villeneuve.

Gordon’s first of seven Xfinity Series victories came during the 2011 season with Kurt Busch in the No. 22 Team Penske car at Watkins Glen International. He earned six total race wins that year, the other five coming with Keselowski. Gordon’s final Xfinity Series triumph was in 2015 with Logano at Watkins Glen.

Before his days as a crew chief, Gordon began his NASCAR tenure in 1998 for Phil Parson’s No. 10 Xfinity Series team. He later worked as a fabricator for Joe Gibbs Racing before finding homes with other teams as a crew chief in the Xfinity Series ranks. In 2010, Gordon joined Michael Waltrip Racing as an engineer for the No. 99 Toyota team in the Xfinity Series for drivers Trevor Bayne, Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Truex.

After a storied run in the sport, Gordon is looking forward the next adventure, which he said was still an unknown.

“I’m going to make the transition to something else and a new chapter of life,” Gordon said. “Not sure what that’s going to be, but looking to have a little more family time.”

Article by Chase Wilhelm for nascar.com