Kyle Larson’s former lead engineer joins Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s NASCAR Xfinity Series team for 2024 season

JR Motorsports has announced the NASCAR Xfinity Series crew chief lineup for the 2024 season. And Kyle Larson’s former lead engineer is one of them.

Adam Wall, who previously worked with Hendrick Motorsports, will return to the JR Motorsports in 2024 as crew chief for the #8 Chevrolet Camaro team and driver Sammy Smith.

Wall worked as lead engineer for Kyle Larson’s #5 HMS Chevrolet team during their NASCAR Cup Series championship campaign in 2021. He previously also served as the lead engineer at JR Motorsports.

JR Motorsport’s Director of Competition, Mike Bumgarner is happy to have their former team member back for the upcoming season, saying in a team release:

“I feel very confident in our group of crew chiefs for 2024. Both Adam and Phillip have previous experience here with our guys, and that chemistry alone makes the flow of communication even better. The process speaks volumes to what Dale and Kelley have been able to do here.”

Philips Bell will be the crew chief for Brandon Jones’ #9 team. Apart from Wall and Bell, Mardy Lindley and Jim Pohlman will be in the crew chief role for Samy Mayer’s #1 and Justin Allgaier’s #7 Chevy team.

On joining JRM, Wall said:

“It’s a lot of the same people here at JR Motorsports, so I’m excited to hit the ground running. It’s a really efficient process that they have going with HMS and JRM in terms of personnel, and I’m an example of how it works. To be able to come back to JRM on the crew chief level is a really nice path.”

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“We did not meet our expectations” – Kyle Larson’s crew chief on his 2023 campaign

Cliff Daniels, the crew chief of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion, recently admitted that they failed to achieve their goals in the 2023 season. Daniels was disappointed to lose the championship against Ryan Blaney.

Reflecting on his 2023 campaign, Kyle Larson’s crew chief said (via HendrickMotorsports.com):

“We did not meet our expectations for what our goals were. It certainly wasn’t for a lack of effort from the team and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports.

"A lot of prep went into the weekend. A lot of prep went into the race car and we just got beat. As disappointing as that is, we got beat by a car that turned a little bit better than ours and did a few things just a little bit better than ours.”