Rodden moves from Ganassi to Hendrick

Keith Rodden is back in the fold at Hendrick Motorsports, the team announced Wednesday.

Rodden will be atop the pit box for Kasey Kahne and the No. 5 team beginning in the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Kenny Francis, who had been teamed with Kahne as crew chief for all but eight races since the start of the 2006 season, will still be with Hendrick in the newly created position of vehicle technical director.

Francis will oversee organization-wide car design and development, the team announced in a release, managing the chassis, body, research and development, on-track testing, vehicle engineering and simulation programs.

"This is a great opportunity for both guys, and it will strengthen our overall organization," team owner Rick Hendrick said in a release. "With the new rules for next year, it's more important than ever to have a strong vehicle development program. Unifying those efforts for the first time under Kenny's guidance will be critical to our success. It plays to his experience as a leader, innovative engineer and race-winning crew chief. He's just tailor-made for it.

"Keith is one of the most talented young crew chiefs in the garage. He already knows our culture and works extremely well with our people. The relationships and familiarity he has with Kenny, Kasey and the No. 5 team will make it easy to hit the ground running. We talk a lot about 'fit factor,' and this definitely falls into that category. He's the right fit."

Rodden and Kahne have a long-standing relationship. Rodden served as the lead engineer for Kahne at Hendrick before a one-year stint as a crew chief for Jamie McMurray at Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates in 2014. Before that, Rodden had worked with Kahne at Evernham Motorsports, Richard Petty Motorsports and Red Bull Racing.

In one season with McMurray, Rodden guided the veteran driver to his most top-fives (seven) since 2010, the most top-10s since 2004 (13) and the most laps he had ever led in a season (368). Four top-five finishes in Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup races helped McMurray finish 18th in the final standings.

On Tuesday, the No. 1 team announced that Matt McCall would take over as the crew chief for McMurray.

Kahne is coming off his worst season in his three-year tenure with Hendrick Motorsports. His win on Labor Day weekend at Atlanta put him in the Chase, but a string of subpar finishes saw him get eliminated following the Talladega race in the Contender Round. Kahne's top-fives (three) were his lowest since 2007, his top-10s (11) were his lowest since 2010 and he led his least amount of laps (218) since 2008.

"I'm so grateful to Kenny and happy for him and his family," Kahne said. "He's one of my biggest supporters and best friends, and I'm excited about his new role. … Bringing Keith back is big for us. We spent 10 years together, so we have a very strong overall relationship and understanding of how to communicate. There's a great friendship and a lot of mutual respect, but at the same time I know he's really going to push me. I trust Mr. Hendrick to put the right people in the right places to make us successful, and I know these decisions will do that."

NASCAR