Todd Devnich, currently the car chief on Kasey Kahne’s No. 9 Dodge in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, knew early on that despite his love for racing, he would never be a race car driver.

“I tried it one time,” Devnich said. “There’s a 360 sprint car my brother-in-law owns and I thought I’d try it back in Nebraska.”

Devnich, who has a tendency to get motion sickness, attempted a 10-lap heat race after his friend, sprint car driver Don Droud Jr., gave him some pointers.

“He (Droud Jr.) said the first five laps I did the right thing and the last five laps I was out to lunch,” Devnich explained. “I thought I was going really fast until they passed me at about fifty miles an hour faster. I got to stopping and I thought ‘oh boy I think I’m going to get sick’ so I laid up in the truck for about an hour and I was like ‘this ain’t for me’ so I decided right then and there that I’d just better work on them.”

And that is exactly what he did.

After learning the ropes on Droud Jr.’s No. 1BK sprint car, Devnich was offered a job working for World of Outlaws driver Donny Schatz.

“(I) just started helping them (Droud Jr.) and it just kind of progressed into an occupation where you’d get paid for it… It was a full time job but I wanted to be out on the road and I just took a chance with Donny Schatz and worked up there for three or four years.”

After meeting his future wife, Devnich decided to take a job with a sprint car team in Ohio in order to be closer to where she was from. Then, he decided to get out of the racing world altogether and he took a job in construction. Unfortunately, the construction industry was not exhilarating enough for Devnich so, with a friend’s urging, he moved to North Carolina in hopes of finding a job with a NASCAR team.

“Down here you can still work on a race car but still have a family life, because they fly you around and the jobs have benefits, whereas with the Outlaw deal you were home three times a year, if that,” Devnich said. “So, about five years ago I came down here, he (Devnich's friend) said if you want a job you’d better get down here… and about a month later he quit so I took his job (with) Evernham Motorsports.”

Devnich's first job was working on the Busch (now Nationwide) Series car, with multiple drivers including Jeremy Mayfield, Kasey Kahne and Casey Atwood. After working his way through the ranks on the Busch team, the Car Chief position on Kasey Kahne’s Sprint Cup car opened up.

“They asked if I wanted it and I didn’t know much about it, but I took it and I’ve been working there ever since… it ruffled some feathers at first but it seems to have worked out pretty good so far.” 

Devnich loves being a car chief, but as with most people in his position, the idea of an even higher spot on the pit box is always something to think about.

“Hopefully I can develop my career into something a little better but for right now I’m pretty satisfied where I’m at… Being a crew chief is hard and I don’t want to get in there and fail so I think I need to learn some more.”

From his humble Midwestern roots, Devnich has worked his way through the ranks of the motorsports industry to the big-time world of NASCAR. A natural-born engineer, Devnich has a raw talent and determination that makes him a true asset to his team.

It is obvious why his racing career only lasted ten laps, he was meant to hold a wrench instead of a steering wheel.

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