ThorSport Racing is making a mid-season crew chief and team swap ahead of Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series MillerTech Battery 200 at Pocono Raceway.
According to NASCAR’s Roster Portal, the championship-winning organization will be swapping the crew (and shot-callers) of the No. 66 and No. 99 Ford F-150 entries moving forward.
Rich Lushes, who has worked with Ben Rhodes on-and-off over the last half-decade, will be moved to the No. 66 Ford F-150, working with Luke Fenhaus, Luke Baldwin, and Cam Waters.
Lushes is a three-time race-winning crew chief in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and has been a part of the ThorSport Racing operation since 2018. In his time with the team, Lushes has been a part of two championship runs — both with Ben Rhodes in 2021 and 2023.
Doug George, who joined the organization at the beginning of this season after being at Faction46 in 2024, will be serving as the crew chief for two-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes.
George is a veteran crew chief across NASCAR’s top-three divisions — with previous part-time gigs in both the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series. In the NASCAR Truck Series, George has won a pair of events with Kyle Busch behind the wheel of a Billy Ballew Motorsports entry in 2009.
For ThorSport Racing, making mid-season personnel changes isn’t a brand-new practice by any means. This is the third straight season that Rich Lushes has been swapped to a different team at ThorSport during the middle of a season.
In 2023, Lushes was moved from Hailie Deegan’s No. 13 Ford F-150 to Ben Rhodes’ No. 99 Ford F-150 with four races remaining on the NASCAR Truck Series calendar. The following season, Ben Rhodes (No. 99) and Jake Garcia (No. 13) swapped crew chiefs after just eight NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series events.
At this time, it is unknown whether the swapping of crews between the No. 66 and No. 99 ThorSport Racing entries is permanent or just something being trialed by the organization prior to the post-season.
Entering this weekend’s event at Pocono Raceway, Rhodes currently sits 11th in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point standings, a whopping 55 points below the cutline as the series has only five regular-season events remaining. The No. 66 Ford F-150 currently sits 23rd in NASCAR Truck Series owner points.
The MillerTech Battery 200 at Pocono will take place on Friday, June 20 at 5:00 PM ET on FS1, NASCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
