Taylor Moyer

Taylor Moyer returns atop the pit box for JR Motorsports in 2021 for his third season as the crew chief of the No. 8 Chevrolet with the goal of leading the team to the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series owner championship. Fresh off of a 2020 season that saw the No. 8 team qualify for the playoffs on the strength of 11 top fives, 19 top 10s and three runner-up finishes, Moyer heads into 2021 looking to continue to make gains on all fronts with drivers Josh Berry, Sam Mayer and Miguel Paludo.

Biography
The 2021 season won’t be Moyer’s first time working with multiple drivers throughout a race season. In 2020, the No. 8 team saw three drivers get behind the wheel: Daniel Hemric, Jeb Burton and team owner Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Meanwhile, during his first full-time season as the crew chief of the No. 8 in 2019, Moyer had a total of nine drivers pilot his JRM Chevrolets, earning a total of seven top fives and 23 top 10s en route to a 10th-place finish in the NXS owner standings.

Moyer, a 33-year-old native of Shoreham, Vermont. and graduate of The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, came to JRM from Hendrick Motorsports following the 2018 season. He began working at Hendrick at the age of 19 as a member of the developmental pit crew. From there, he climbed the ladder system to the parts department, chassis and body shop, and race shop – ultimately becoming a race engineer. Moyer collected one win, nine top-five and 33 top-10 finishes as a NASCAR Cup Series race engineer between working with the No. 5 team and driver Kasey Kahne and No. 24 team and then-rookie driver.

Moyer’s passion for motorsports began at a young age, helping childhood friends compete in sprint cars and dirt modifieds at dirt tracks in Vermont. After taking engineering classes in high school, Moyer knew he wanted a career in racing. Following graduation, Moyer packed up his belongings and moved to Charlotte to attend engineering school at UNCC.

When Moyer isn’t at the racetrack, he spends time on his farm where he resides in Olive Branch, North Carolina, The young crew chief also enjoys hunting, fishing, snowboarding, mountain biking, and owns a high-end storage rack company for outdoor gear.

When NASCAR announced the Xfinity Series would hold a doubleheader this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Moyer's reaction wasn’t necessarily an enthusiastic one.

The 32-year-old crew chief for JR Motorsports’ No. 8 Chevrolet wouldn’t only be preparing for a doubleheader. He would be preparing for a doubleheader with two different drivers.

The first would be the “Boss Man,” Moyer’s nickname for team owner Dale Earnhardt, Jr., set to make his lone start of the year Saturday. The driver for Sunday’s race is former Cup Series driver Daniel Hemric.

In his second year working on the No. 8 car, Moyer wasn’t even concerned about having to come up with two different setups for the No. 8 car.

He was worried about seats.

“I had nine drivers last year and I’ve got three this year (Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Daniel Hemric and Jeb Burton) and the way we did the nine last year, other than the Boss Man, everybody ran the same seat shell,” Moyer told NBC Sports. “We run a (Hendrick Motorsports) carbon fiber seat shell, and it’s mounted in the same place in the car and everybody got poured for a custom insert. So interior swaps are very easy. We have a great interior guy at the shop, but even we could do it. You pull out one insert, you put in the other one, you adjust the steering wheel, the steering column … You swap out the steering wheel for whatever size wheel they want. And you put pedal extensions on. So we have that down to a science.”

Unfortunately, that science only applies under normal circumstances in a normal season. This year has been anything but that, with the doubleheader at Miami the latest NASCAR oddity in a COVID-19 world.

Hendrick Motorsports role
He got his foot in the door at Hendrick Motorsports on a developmental pit crew while studying mechanical engineering at University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Since then, he has moved through several positions at the organization.

Moyer spent the race listening to the team radio as well as monitoring the car. He calculated how far the car can go on fuel and shares that information with the team. Moyer is able to make recommendations to crew chief Keith Rodden based on the information he gathered.

“The final say is the crew chief’s call,” Moyer shared. “We all have a part in it. Everyone helps with decision making.”

A 36-race schedule does not allow for much downtime for race teams. Moyer spend most of his time each week working in the shop or at the track.

“The pace of work in racing is normal to me, but to other people is mind blowing how fast we get things done,” Moyer said. “The schedule and the life is very demanding. It is long work hours and intensive travel.”

Moyer enjoys sharing his story in hopes of inspiring others young people. He remembers growing up on the farm working on his friend’s race car and credits his success to hard work.

Other information
The 29-year-old race engineer for NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne was in perpetual motion at his Olive Branch home and design studio, giving me an early morning tour mere hours after returning from Daytona qualifiers the day before. (For those not well-versed in small-town N.C., Olive Branch is in northeastern Union County.)

Moyer proudly showed off his custom outdoor gear storage systems and the ruggedly handsome logo apparel he created under his outdoor-lifestyle brand, Oakmulgee.

A Vermont farm boy, Moyer spent his younger years chasing beef cattle, racing dirt bikes and Sprint cars, and playing sports. His eyes set on a racing career, he came to Charlotte at age 18, got a degree in mechanical engineering at UNC Charlotte and never looked back. Moyer joined Hendrick Motorsports in 2008 and has been with Kahne’s No. 5 car for the past three years.

As much as he loves his time at the track, Moyer looks forward to his downtime, usually in pursuit of good times outdoors.

“Oakmulgee grew from issues I was having with my outdoor gear,” said Moyer. “I wanted to use my design skills to create a product to organize, protect and store my gear – bikes, fishing gear, snowboards, wake boards, kayaks, paddles and the like.”

With younger brother Cole, 26, as chief marketing and operations officer, Oakmulgee has expanded beyond a garage-start up to a full-fledged LLC, selling various products online. Oakmulgee contracts with a local manufacturer, fabricator and fulfillment operation, freeing up the Moyer brothers to concentrate on research and development, marketing and growing the business.