Blake Harris enters his third year as crew chief for the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Ally Racing team, continuing to work alongside driver Alex Bowman for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. Harris will once again guide the team through the challenging 38-race schedule and will look to build momentum off the success the team accomplished in the past two seasons.
In 2024, under Harris’ leadership, Bowman achieved a career high in top-10 finishes (17) and tied his previous best with eight top fives. The season highlights included winning at the Chicago Street Course and claiming the pole for the fall race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The win at Chicago secured the team’s spot in the NASCAR Playoffs, marking Harris’ first such appearance as a crew chief. The result was a ninth-place finish in the Cup Series points standings.
During their inaugural season together, Harris and Bowman wasted no time developing a strong working relationship. They started the 2023 season by winning the pole position for the DAYTONA 500. Harris guided Bowman to his sixth consecutive front row start for the “Great American Race” and a fifth-place finish, marking the first top five for the pole sitter in the prestigious race in 21 years. The 37-year-old guided his team to a top-10 finish in six of the first seven races, including third-place runs at both Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Circuit of The Americas. The consistent results continued and by the seventh race of the season, Harris’ team led the points standings and claimed the pole position that weekend at Richmond Raceway. Heading into the 11th race of the season, Bowman suffered a back injury. Harris quickly pivoted to prepare Josh Berry as the team’s temporary driver for the next three races and the All-Star race. Bowman returned to the No. 48 for the Coca-Cola 600 and the Ally Racing team went on to finish the season 20th in the driver point standings. All-in-all in 2023, Harris guided his team to two poles, four top-five finishes and 10 top-10 finishes.
In October 2022, Harris was named crew chief for the No. 48 the Rick Hendrick-owned team, making him the newest shot caller at the organization. Before accepting this current position, he was the crew chief of the No. 34 team at Front Row Motorsports. That season, Harris led driver Michael McDowell to a career-high in top-10 finishes.
A native of Maypearl, Texas, Harris started his racing career behind the wheel of a dirt go-kart at 11 years old. Moving into stock cars at just 14 years old, Harris rebuilt his first car several times before making his dirt stock car debut at 15. At the end of his dirt stock car season, Harris moved into asphalt trucks in a touring series in his home state. Harris spent two seasons in the series before moving to North Carolina to pursue a career in NASCAR. At just 18 years old, he joined Evernham Motorsports (later Richard Petty Motorsports) in 2006, working in both the engine and chassis departments.
In 2010, Harris moved to Colorado to join Furniture Row Racing where he became the car chief for Kurt Busch for the 2013 season. That year, Harris and the team tallied 11 top-five results, 16 top 10s, a pole and the organization’s first spot in the playoffs. Harris also was the car chief for Martin Truex Jr. from 2014 to 2018 with the team garnering 17 wins, 56 top-five finishes, 91 top 10s, 12 poles and three Championship 4 appearances. He was an integral part of Furniture Row’s 2017 championship season with the No. 78 team winning eight races and leading 2,253 laps.
In 2019, Harris followed Truex back to North Carolina to Joe Gibbs Racing where he served as the car chief for the No. 19 team. Over the next three seasons, he was a part of 12 wins and two Championship 4 appearances. Ahead of the 2022 season, he accepted the crew chief role at Front Row Motorsports. In his only season, Harris led McDowell to two top-five results, 12 top 10s and an average finishing position of 16.7 – all bests for the 15-year Cup Series veteran.
