MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Jimmy Villeneuve has been named the crew chief for Chase Purdy and the No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports team in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2023.
Villeneuve has served as a Truck Series crew chief at KBM since 2017, where he has been a part of 18 wins, a driver’s championship with Christopher Bell in 2017 and the 2019 owner’s championship with the No. 51 team.
Prior to joining KBM the New Hampshire native served as a truck chief at Athenian Motorsports in 2015 when the team won with John Wes Townley and was promoted to crew chief five races into the 2016 season.
“I’m honored that Kyle has chosen to elevate me to the crew chief position and I’m going to do everything that I can to prove that it was the right decision,” Villeneuve said. “We’ve got a close-knit group of guys on the 4 team that are working hard to make sure that we come out of the gates strong to start the 2023 season. Chase has been at the shop pretty much every day, so we’re already getting acclimated to him as a person and making things comfortable for him inside the truck so that when the season starts we can unload with fast Silverados each week.”
“Jimmy has been an instrumental part of the success we have had at KBM in recent years winning a lot of races and a couple of championships as a truck chief, so we feel like he’s well deserving of the opportunity to be promoted to crew chief,” Busch said. “He’s learned the KBM way under Eric (Phillips) and Rudy (Fugle) and being able to promote someone from within the organization to lead Chase (Purdy) and the No. 4 team will allow them to come out of the gates strong to start the 2023 season. It also shows the quality of people we have working at KBM throughout the building in every position and that hard work and dedication within our company will be rewarded.”