Joe Gibbs Racing

Jason Ratcliff is in his fifth year as crew chief of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) team in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and for the first time will be working the entire season with Kyle Busch, one of NASCAR’s most talented drivers.

Ratcliff was the crew chief for four of Busch’s record-tying 10 Nationwide Series victories in 2008, and this year the duo will each gun for their first championship.

They’ve both been close to Nationwide Series titles before, with Ratcliff earning runner-up honors in 2003 with driver David Green at Brewco Motorsports and Busch finishing second in 2004 while driving for Hendrick Motorsports.  Now working together for an entire season, the two hope to capture their first respective championship.

Ratcliff was born on Dec. 8, 1967 in Sumter, SC, about an hour east of the state capitol of Columbia, but moved several times as a child before settling in Westlake, LA. It was there that he began working on Mini-Sprint cars.

After graduating from Westlake High School in 1985, Ratcliff moved to Texas where he spent the next nine years working on Sprint cars in and around the Lone Star State.

His professional racing breakthrough came in 1995 when he joined Sadler Racing in Nashville, Tenn., as a mechanic and rear tire changer for drivers Chuck Bown and Gary Bradberry in the Nationwide Series. After two years with Sadler Racing, Ratcliff left the team and spent the 1997-1998 seasons at LAR Motorsports, headquartered in Columbia, Tenn., where he was chief mechanic for Casey Atwood and Jeff Purvis.

Ratcliff’s first year as a NASCAR crew chief came at Brewco Motorsports in 1999 when a young Atwood was a Nationwide Series rookie. Ratcliff and Atwood were together at Brewco for two years before Atwood left for a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ride at Evernham Motorsports (now Richard Petty Motorsports) and was replaced at Brewco by Jamie McMurray for the 2001 and 2002 seasons.

The 2003 and 2004 seasons at Brewco gave Ratcliff the chance to work with Green, a veteran Nationwide Series driver. The crew chief/driver tandem hit the ground running from the opening race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in 2003. Together, they won three races, scored 11 top-fives, 21 top-10s and two poles en route to finishing second in the season-ending driver championship, falling a mere 14 points behind title-winner Brian Vickers.

Working with Green, Ratcliff showed his mettle, and again, displayed to the NASCAR community that it was, indeed, possible for a non-Sprint Cup-affiliated Nationwide Series team to compete at a championship level week in and week out.

Before arriving at JGR prior to the 2005 season, Ratcliff had netted seven wins and seven pole positions with his combination of rookie and veteran drivers. That set the stage for his new life at an established Sprint Cup-affiliated Nationwide Series operation, which promised huge dividends.

Ratcliff enjoyed a solid run with former JGR driver J.J. Yeley in 2005 and 2006 as they collaborated on 13 top-five and 34 top-10 finishes in two seasons together on NASCAR’s junior circuit.

In 2007, Ratcliff worked with the trio of Aric Almirola, Brad Coleman and Kevin Conway as they shared the No. 18 car. Collectively, they scored two poles, four top-fives and five top-10s.

Last season, Busch and Denny Hamlin split time in the No. 18 Toyotas, with Busch scoring four wins and Hamlin one, all with Ratcliff sitting atop the pit box.

Ratcliff resides in Huntersville, N.C., with his wife Christi and children Cade and Dakota. He enjoys working on cars, golfing and boating.