Borland Out As Dale Jarrett's Crew Chief

Thursday, May 3rd 2007, 9:36 pm

By: News On 6

Borland CORNELIUS, N.C. (AP) _ Michael Waltrip Racing, still trying to find its way out of a terrible start to its first season in NASCAR Nextel Cup racing, turned to Jason Burdett to replace crew chief Matt Borland on Dale Jarrett's No. 44 Toyota.

It was the third crew chief change for the Waltrip team in less than a month.

Borland, who came to the Waltrip team from Penske Racing South, where he was crew chief for Ryan Newman, turned down the job as the new team's technical director and left the organization, according to a team spokesman.

Burdett, who worked with Jarrett last year at Robert Yates Racing, will move into his new duties after a brief period to get acclimated to his new team. Meanwhile, Derrick Finley, who has been working as the lead engineer on team owner Waltrip's No. 55 car, will act as the interim crew chief for Jarrett this week at Richmond.

Jarrett, the 1999 Cup champion, has struggled through his first nine races with Waltrip. He goes to Richmond 37th in the season points and will have to qualify for Saturday night's race on speed after using up all six of his former champion's provisionals for the season.

Waltrip began the season with David Hyder as his crew chief, but Hyder and team competition director Bobby Kennedy were both suspended indefinitely by NASCAR after a foreign substance was found in the car's fuel system at Daytona in February. Hyder left the company last week.

Scott Eggleston replaced Hyder on Waltrip's car, but he was replaced by Buddy Sisco two weeks ago. Waltrip has failed to qualify for a race since the season-opening Daytona 500.

Rookie David Reutimann and crew chief Frank Kerr have been together since the season began and Reutimann has qualified for six of the nine races. He is 43rd in the season standings.