Kevin J. Meendering (born March 17, 1981) 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. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

crew chief who works for Hendrick Motorsports as the crew chief of their No. 17

Chevrolet Camaro 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 share ...

in the

NASCAR Xfinity Series The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a support race on the day prior to a ...

, which is fielded part-time for

Kyle Larson Kyle Miyata Larson (born July 31, 1992) is an American professional auto racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports. Larson is the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champi ...

Alex Bowman Alex Michael Bowman (born April 25, 1993) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports, part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Seri ...

and William Byron. He is also serving as the interim crew chief for Hendrick's No. 5 car in the

NASCAR Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...

Racing career

2016–2018: JR Motorsports

Meendering's first crew chief job came with

JR Motorsports JR Motorsports (pronounced "Junior Motorsports") is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, CARS Tour, and occasionally in the NASCAR Advance Auto Par ...

, who he worked for from 2016 to 2018 as the crew chief of their No. 1 Chevrolet driven by

Elliott Sadler Elliott William Barnes Sadler (born April 30, 1975) is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 10 Chevrolet Camaro for Kaulig Racing. Sadler is one of 36 dr ...

in the Xfinity Series.

2019–present: Hendrick Motorsports

On October 10, 2018, it was announced that Hendrick Motorsports would split up the legendary driver/crew chief pair of

Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Kenneth Johnson (born September 17, 1975) is an American professional auto racing driver. A seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, he competes part-time in the series driving for Petty GMS Motorsports. Johnson's seven Cup championships, ...

and

Chad Knaus Chad Anthony Knaus (; born August 5, 1971) is an American former NASCAR crew chief. He is currently employed at Hendrick Motorsports as the Vice President of Competition. Knaus has 81 victories as Jimmie Johnson's crew chief and is the only N ...

starting in 2019 after they had a dismal 2018 season. Meendering was announced as Johnson's new crew chief for 2019 and that Knaus would replace

Darian Grubb Darian K. Grubb (born October 9, 1975) is a NASCAR mechanic, engineer, and crew chief who is currently employed at Trackhouse Racing Team as the Director of Performance and the crew chief of the team's part-time No. 91 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 driv ...

(who moved into a technical director position for HMS) as the crew chief of Hendrick's No. 24 car driven by William Byron. On July 29, 2019, following a string of disappointing finishes during the 2019 season, Hendrick Motorsports announced that the No. 48 car's engineer,

Cliff Daniels Clifford O. Daniels is an American crew chief currently employed with Hendrick Motorsports. 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 mech ...

, would replace Meendering as the crew chief of the No. 48. Meendering would be moved to a different unspecified role at Hendrick after he was relieved of his crew chief job. On June 2, 2022, Hendrick Motorsports announced that Meendering would return to crew chiefing for the first time since 2019 as he would be the crew chief of the team's new part-time Xfinity Series car, the No. 17. On June 20, HMS announced that Meendering would also serve as the interim crew chief for

's No. 5 car in the Cup Series after Cliff Daniels was suspended for four races (

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

Road America Road America is a motorsport road course located near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, United States on Wisconsin Highway 67. It has hosted races since the 1950s and currently hosts races in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, WeatherTech SportsCar Champ ...

, Atlanta in July and

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

) due to the car losing a tire and wheel during the race at Sonoma.

Personal life

Meendering's older brother,

Jeff Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form (hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes * ...

, is also a NASCAR crew chief. Jeff works for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series as the crew chief for the No. 19 car driven by Brandon Jones. The Meendering brothers are from

Marne, Michigan Marne () is an unincorporated community in Wright Township of Ottawa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Geography Marne is 2.19 sq. miles large and it is 12 miles northwest of downtown Grand Rapids. The Marne ZIP code 49435 serves areas ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meendering, Kevin Living people 1981 births People from Grand Rapids, Michigan NASCAR crew chiefs