In 2026, Ross Chastain will welcome a new crew chief for the No. 1 Chevrolet, marking a significant change after five successful seasons with Phil Surgen. Under Surgen’s guidance, Chastain secured all six of his victories in the NASCAR Cup Series.
The duo came close to clinching the 2022 Cup Series championship, ultimately finishing as the runner-up in the points standings. Their last triumph together happened during the 2025 Coca-Cola 600, where they achieved a remarkable comeback from last place to first after spending the previous night preparing a backup vehicle due to an accident in practice.
In a recent podcast hosted by Jon Cain and produced by the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Surgen described that victory as the ‘most gratifying’ experience of his tenure as a crew chief. Notably, he is an alumnus of WPI, having graduated in 2004.
What has the former crew chief been up to lately? After the change, Trackhouse retained Surgen within the organization, promoting him to the role of Director of Technology. Surgen shared insights about this transition during the WPI podcast, stating, “We kind of set this in motion about a year ago. Personally, I had a desire to travel less. You know, as a crew chief, I was traveling 38 weekends a year and with a young family, I just felt the need to spend more time at home with the family.”
He continued, “So, now I’ve transitioned to director of technology. On the day-to-day, I’ll be looking after a group of performance engineers, which is kind of made up of race engineers, and some software engineer types. The goal of the performance group is to support the teams, the race engineers specifically, and help elevate the performance of the company.”
“In my new position, it will be quite different not being at the track, and that’s something I will need to adapt to. Our operations are meticulously calculated, aimed at enhancing vehicle performance, improving driver capabilities, and optimizing pit crew efficiency. I’m driven by the opportunity to aid in developing tools and facilitating personnel to build faster race cars.”
AI’s Impact on NASCAR
As technology continues to evolve rapidly, NASCAR is not falling behind. Teams like Trackhouse are diligently striving to remain at the forefront of these advancements.
“Technology in NASCAR evolves as quickly as it does in the broader world, so we are proactively adopting and applying any new technologies available,” Surgen noted. “Over my two decades in this field, the changes have been profound. Many of the innovations today bear little resemblance to what we used in the past.”
Among these technological advancements is the rising influence of Artificial Intelligence and its diverse applications in contemporary society. Trackhouse is fully engaged in this area, with Surgen leading the charge as Director of Technology.
“We have heavily invested in creating databases to integrate with AI systems for around a year and a half,” Surgen explained. “We have dedicated programmers focused on this project. We’ve established the infrastructure, and are developing user interfaces and agents, allowing us to extract valuable insights and optimizations from these systems. The potential of these systems in the next couple of years is going to be extraordinary.”
“Currently, we have laid the groundwork, and the structure is nearly complete, but there are still finishing touches to make. This technology is poised to play a significant role in NASCAR racing. I believe we might be slightly ahead of other teams in this regard, and we are beginning to experience the benefits, with even greater opportunities on the horizon.”
