Haas CNC Racing Hires Borland As Competition Director

Haas CNC Racing Hires Borland As Competition Director
Posted on May 25th, 2007 at 8:44 am by Editor

Haas CNC Racing has hired Matt Borland as its competition director, overseeing the cars of Jeff Green and Johnny Sauter. Borland, who won 12 races as Ryan Newman’s crew chief at Penske Racing, was released last month by Waltrip’s struggling Toyota team, where he had served as Dale Jarrett’s crew chief. The Michigan native turned down an offer to become Waltrip’s competition director, and was also pursued by Evernham Motorsports.

“The first thing was I had to decide in my own mind was, am I done with crew chiefing for good? Is it time to step away from that?” he said Thursday. “I decided that it was, and then I looked at some different opportunities that were different from crew chiefing, yet would still be involved in racing. This was the best for me and my family.”

Borland’s background in engineering, which helped Newman win a series-best eight races in 2003, fit in with a Haas CNC team that’s building its own rolling road wind tunnel. Haas CNC general manager Joe Custer was on the telephone to Borland soon after his divorce from Waltrip’s team was complete. The new position will satisfy Borland’s desire to spend less time on the road, a factor that played into his split with Penske after last year. Right now, he has no plans to return to a crew chief’s role.