NASCAR Cup Series team Gaunt Brothers Racing has been quiet about specific plans regarding the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season. Multiple reports have put Daniel Suarez behind the wheel of the #96 Gaunt Brothers Toyota for the full 2020 season, as the team’s former driver Parker Kligerman has confirmed he wouldn’t be with the team this year. The latest report, from TobyChristie.com, names Dave Winston as Suarez’s crew chief on the #96 for 2020, citing an anonymous source.
Winston is not confirming or denying the validity of the report, but Richard Childress Racing, the team for which Winston was a race engineer in 2019, has confirmed the Winston is no longer there.
Winston has 61 races of experience as a crew chief at the Cup Series level. He was the crew chief for Alex Bowman at BK Racing in 2014 and was in the same role at Leavine Family Racing, working primarilky with driver Michael McDowell, in 2016. His best finish as a crew chief at NASCAR’s top level was a 10th with McDowell at Daytona International Speedway..
Gaunt Brothers Racing has never competed full-time in the Cup Series and has never notched a top-10 finish. Suarez, though, has eight top-fives and 32 top-10 finishes in 108-career races as a Cup Series driver, first, for Joe Gibbs Racing and, then, for Stewart-Haas Racing. He was released from SHR after the 2019 season to make room for 2020 rookie Cole Custer.