 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Trent Owens" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Trent Owens | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.JPG) Owens in 2014 | |||||||
| Born | William Trent Owens (1975-01-04)January 4, 1975 (age 50) Darlington, South Carolina, U.S. | ||||||
| NASCARCraftsman Truck Series career | |||||||
| 12 races run over 2 years | |||||||
| 2002 position | 34th | ||||||
| Best finish | 34th (2002) | ||||||
| First race | 2001Jelly Belly 200 (Pikes Peak) | ||||||
| Last race | 2002O'Reilly 400K (Texas) | ||||||
| |||||||
| Statistics current as of March 2, 2025. | |||||||
William Trent Owens (born January 4, 1975) is an Americanstock car racing driver andcrew chief who works forKaulig Racing as the crew chief for their No. 16Chevrolet ZL1 driven byA. J. Allmendinger in theNASCAR Cup Series. He was previously a driver in theNASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and theARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series. He is also the nephew of seven-time Cup Series championRichard Petty. Owens previously crew chiefed forPetty's team as well asJTG Daugherty Racing,Braun Racing/Turner Motorsports/Turner Scott Motorsports andBobby Gerhart Racing.
Owens started his career while still in high school, working forPetty Enterprises, owned by his uncleRichard. He also worked at theRichard Petty Driving Experience.[1]
In 2000, Owens attempted to qualify for the season-finale for theARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series atAtlanta in a No. 37 car owned by crew chiefBarry Dodson, but he failed to qualify. He would not attempt to make any other ARCA starts. Owens made his debut in theNASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in2001, driving the No. 49 Ford atPikes Peak. He started 32nd, but managed a good day, finishing 19th. He then topped that run with an 18th atTexas before finishing 34th atKansas. He then switched rides, competing in three events forWare Racing Enterprises. His best run was a 19th, coming in the season-finale atCalifornia.
In2002, Owens became the driver of the No. 15 Ford forCountryman Ballew Racing. He failed to qualify for the season-opener atDaytona. In the rest of the races he ran for the team (the next six races), he scored top-20s in all but one of his starts. His best finish of the year was a 14th at Pikes Peak (where he had his best career start of 12th), but he also had a pair of 15ths atDarlington andDover. After the race atTexas, Owens was released due to funding issues. He was without a ride for the rest of the season.[1]
After being unable to find another ride, in 2003, Owens took his first crew chiefing job for Scott Traylor Motorsports's No. 5 car in theARCA Re/Max Series, working with a youngClint Bowyer as he made his series debut atNashville Superspeedway, helping him pull off an eye-opening 2nd-place finish withRichard Childress in attendance, which led to Childress signing Bowyer to become adevelopment driver forhis team. Bowyer would go on to become a Cup Series driver for RCR.[1]
Starting in2006, Owens worked forBraun Racing, laterTurner Motorsports and thenTurner Scott Motorsports as a crew chief in theNASCAR Nationwide Series, scoring wins withMark Martin,Dave Blaney,Reed Sorenson,James Buescher, andNelson Piquet Jr. He was also the crew chief forKyle Larson in2013, and although he did not win any races that year, he wonRookie of the Year and moved up to a Cup Series ride withChip Ganassi Racing the following year.
On December 2, 2013, it was announced that Owens would be moving up to theNASCAR Sprint Cup Series in2014, having been hired byRichard Petty Motorsports to crew chief the team's No. 43 entry for driverAric Almirola.[2]
Owens was released from his contract at Richard Petty Motorsports at the end of the2016 season. He was then hired to crew chiefJTG Daugherty Racing's new second car, the No. 37, driven byChris Buescher, in2017.[3]
In 2020, Buescher left forRoush Fenway Racing and he was replaced byRyan Preece (previously the driver of JTGD's No. 47 car), and Owens remained the crew chief of the No. 37 car. Prior to the2020 Auto Club 400 atFontana, Owens was suspended after the car was discovered to have an illegal modification during pre-race inspection. The team was also docked 10 owner and driver points.[4]
When the No. 37 car was closed down after the2021 season, Owens lost his job with JTGD and moved toKaulig Racing to crew chief their new No. 31 car in the Cup Series, driven byJustin Haley, who is the nephew of Todd Braun, the owner of Braun Racing, who Owens used to crew chief for.[5] On February 23, 2022, Owens was suspended for four races after the No. 31 lost a wheel during the2022 Daytona 500.[6] On May 17, Owens was once again suspended for four races due to a tire and wheel loss during the2022 AdventHealth 400 atKansas.[7]
On December 5, 2024, Kaulig announced that Owens would move to their No. 16 car in the Cup Series in 2025 where he would crew chiefA. J. Allmendinger in his return to the series full-time.[8]
Owens is married and has two children. He is the nephew ofRichard Petty. His father Randy Owens, the brother of Petty's late wife Lynda, was a member of Petty's pit crew at age 19 and killed during a pit road accident when a water tank caught on fire during the1975Winston 500. Trent was four months old at the time.[1] His step father is fellow NASCAR crew chiefBarry Dodson who won the 1989 Cup championship with driverRusty Wallace.[9]
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
| NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | No. | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | NCTSC | Pts | Ref |
| 2001 | Covenant Racing Team | 49 | Ford | DAY | HOM | MMR | MAR | GTY | DAR | PPR 19 | DOV | TEX 18 | MEM | MLW | KAN 34 | KEN | NHA | IRP | NSH | CIC | NZH | RCH | SBO | TEX | 49th | 525 | [10] | |||
| Ware Racing Enterprises | 81 | Chevy | LVS 27 | PHO 34 | CAL 19 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2002 | Billy Ballew Motorsports | 15 | Ford | DAY DNQ | DAR 15 | MAR 17 | GTY 20 | PPR 14 | DOV 15 | TEX 26 | MEM | MLW | KAN | KEN | NHA | MCH | IRP | NSH | RCH | TEX | SBO | LVS | CAL | PHO | HOM | 34th | 657 | [11] | ||
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
| ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | No. | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | ABMSC | Pts | Ref |
| 2000 | Dodson Motorsports | 37 | Info not available | DAY | SLM | AND | CLT | KIL | FRS | MCH | POC | TOL | KEN | BLN | POC | WIN | ISF | KEN | DSF | SLM | CLT | TAL | ATL DNQ | N/A | 0 | [12] |