Sammy Johns joins RCR as operations director

He will report directly to Dr. Eric Warren, RCR’s director of competition. 

Johns parted ways with Richard Petty Motorsports in August. He had been director of operations since Gillett Evernham merged with the RPM in 2010.

The Lakeland, Fla. native started his career at local short tracks. His early foray into NASCAR was as a mechanic and chassis builder before becoming a crew chief for David Green in 1997. 

Two years later, Johns moved to Andy Petree Racing with Ken Schrader. In 2001, Johns was hired by Ray Evernham as director of competition to work with the new Dodge program. He was also crew chief for Casey Atwood (2001-2003) and Bill Elliott for five races in 2004 before the company was purchased by George Gillett in 2007.  

In 2009, Johns was the crew chief for AJ Allmendinger for the first 22 races and finished out the season with Reed Sorenson. He returned to the box for one race with Aric Almirola in 2013 at Talladega where the No. 43 Ford won the pole for the race. 

RCR currently campaigns three full-time Cup programs in house with Paul Menard, Ryan Newman and Austin Dillon and has technical alliances with JTGDaugherty Racing and Germain Racing. RCR is expected to run five Xfinity teams next season.