Championships are not won by the driver alone. Behind every successful NASCAR team is a group of people responsible for getting the car right before it reaches the track, often spending more time worrying about the smallest details than anyone watching from the grandstands realizes. At Hendrick Motorsports, that attention to preparation has helped Chase Elliott build one of the most productive partnerships of his Cup career. But maintaining that standard also means keeping the right people in place, and the offseason is already bringing an important change to the No. 9 Chevrolet.

With teams across NASCAR’s national divisions reshaping their personnel for 2027, another significant move has emerged from the Cup garage. This time, it involves a familiar name leaving one of the sport’s most successful organizations for an opportunity to take charge of a different operation.

“Chase Elliott car chief Matt Barndt moves to McAnally to crew chief Christian Eckes, whose crew chief Kevin Bellicourt now GM of MHR,” Bob Pockrass reported on X. “Darren Fraley, crew chief for Kris Wright, will crew chief Hemric. Dewey Townsend, who crew chiefed No. 20 truck, will crew chief Nick Sanchez.”

For Elliott, losing Matt Barndt means saying goodbye to someone who has been part of his Hendrick Motorsports journey for more than a decade. Barndt joined the organization in 2010 while studying mechanical engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

After graduating in 2013, he became an engineer for the No. 24 team, working with Jeff Gordon and crew chief Alan Gustafson before remaining with the operation when Elliott took over the car in 2016.

His responsibilities grew alongside Elliott’s Cup career. Barndt worked as a race engineer before being promoted to car chief in 2020, putting him in charge of an increasingly important part of the No. 9 team’s preparation.

The position demanded an understanding of both the mechanical side of the Chevrolet and the driver’s requirements when it came to finding the right balance.

That promotion came at a particularly crucial time. Elliott was heading into his fifth full-time Cup season, still searching for his first championship. Barndt’s first year as car chief ended with the biggest accomplishment of Elliott’s career, as the No. 9 team won the 2020 Cup Series title at Phoenix Raceway.

The road to that championship was hardly straightforward. Elliott had to start the finale from the rear after failing pre-race inspection twice. But the No. 9 Chevrolet was capable of recovering, and the driver eventually led 153 laps to secure the race victory and championship.

For Barndt, it was a career-defining moment in his first season overseeing the car’s preparation.

His importance to the operation went beyond individual race results. Barndt once described how a car that takes weeks to assemble receives just a few days of detailed inspection before hitting the track. His responsibility was to catch potential problems before they became race-day setbacks, while ensuring the setup matched what Elliott wanted behind the wheel.

The partnership subsequently produced plenty more success. Elliott won five races in both 2020 and 2022, with the latter campaign bringing his first regular-season championship and a third consecutive Championship 4 appearance. He added two victories in 2021 before winning once in 2024 and twice in each of the 2025 and 2026 seasons.

That amounts to 17 Cup victories during Barndt’s tenure as car chief. Those results were a collective achievement involving Gustafson, the engineers, mechanics, and pit crew, but Barndt remained a constant presence in the preparation of the No. 9 Chevrolet through those successful seasons.

His next assignment, however, gives him a different level of responsibility. At McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, Barndt will become the crew chief for Christian Eckes and the No. 91 Chevrolet in the 2027 Truck Series season.

He will move from overseeing car preparation at Hendrick to leading an entire race team, taking responsibility for engineering direction, setup decisions, and race-day strategy.

Eckes gives him a competitive foundation. The driver finished fifth in the 2026 Truck Series championship standings and recorded four runner-up finishes across the final six races.

MHR went without a victory, making it important for the new combination to convert that late-season consistency into wins.

There are changes elsewhere in the organization, too. Kevin Bellicourt moves into MHR’s general manager position, Darren Fraley takes over as crew chief of Daniel Hemric’s No. 19 Chevrolet, and Dewey Townsend becomes Nick Sanchez’s crew chief in the No. 18. Dave Elenz, meanwhile, shifts to an advisory role.

Hendrick has yet to announce Barndt’s replacement on Elliott’s team. Gustafson remains the No. 9 crew chief, but finding someone who can maintain the preparation standards set over the past several seasons will be an important offseason task.

For Barndt, the move represents a significant career progression. He leaves a championship-winning Cup operation after helping Elliott collect 17 victories and now gets the opportunity to build a contender of his own.