Jimmy Fennig Talks Bobby Allison’s Daytona 500 Win & Career-Ending Crash

Dale Earnhardt Jr. welcomed one of the fiercest competitors and hardest workers in the NASCAR garage to the Download this week, longtime championship-winning crew chief Jimmy Fennig. Best known for his thirty-year tenure at Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, Jimmy helped elevate a young Kurt Busch to his lone NASCAR Cup Championship in 2004. Jimmy’s journey to the top of NASCAR’s crew chief rankings came from humble beginnings in southeastern Wisconsin. After growing up under the roof of two generations of dirt racers, Jimmy and his brother Jeffrey decided to try their own hand at the craft, building and racing a sportsman car out of local Hales Corner Speedway. Jimmy quickly realized he preferred turning wrenches to rubbing fenders, and he took a job preparing cars for Wisconsin legend Al Schill. It was through this connection that he’d meet Bobby Allison at Slinger Speedway, beginning a long friendship that brought Jimmy into the NASCAR fold.