Jeff Hensley

Infobox_NASCAR_driver
Name = Jeff Hensley |
Birthdate = birth date and age|1962|11|11
Birthplace = flagicon|United States Ridgeway, Virginia
Previous_Year = 1985
Prev_Busch_Pos = 12th
Best_Busch_Pos = 8th - 1984 (Busch Series) | Busch_Top_Tens = 24
First_Busch_Race = 1982 Dogwood 500 (Martinsville)
Last_Busch_Race = 1985 Winn-Dixie 500 (Martinsville)
Awards = 1990 Busch Series Mechanic of the Year
Achievements = 1990 Busch Series Championship-winning Crew Chief
Updated_On = July 8, 2008

Jeff Hensley (born November 11, 1962, in Ridgeway, Virginia), is a former NASCAR driver. He currently serves as the Director of Competition for Bobby Hamilton Racing-Virginia. He most recently served as crew chief of the #5 Toyota Tundra driven by Mike Skinner in the Craftsman Truck Series.

Hensley began racing at the age of eighteen, racing in various short tracks in Virginia and North Carolina. In 1982, he moved to the newly-formed Busch Grand National Series, competing in the #63 for his family-owned team. In his first season of competition, he ran ten races, and had five top-ten finishes. His abbreviated schedule landed him twentieth in points. The following season, he ran twenty-eight of the schedule thirty-five races, and had nine top-ten finishes, and improved to tenth in standings.

He had two less top-tens in 1984, but had a career-best eighth-place finish in points. After he dropped to three top-tens in 1985, in the #2 Flute's Sheetmetal car, he retired and became the crew chief for his family's #63 car. He worked with Jimmy Hensley, Larry Pollard, and Mike Swaim over the next three years before Chuck Bown became the new driver of the 63 in in 1989. They won the championship together in 1990, earning Hensley Mechanic of the Year honors. They continued to work together until the 1994 season, when Bown left and was replaced by his brother Jim. Hensley continued working for the team until it was sold in 2001.

Following the sale, he worked for Arrington Manufacturers for three years before returning to the track when he was hired by Davis in 2004 to serve as the crew chief for Bill Lester's #22 truck. The following season, he was reassigned to the #5 of Mike Skinner, where he has stayed for two and a half seasons. He and Skinner won eight races and finished second in points during the 2007 season. In June 2008, he had originally left BDR for personal reasons, before he was hired at Hamilton Racing.

External links

* [http://www.billdavisracing.com/ts5/team/crew_chief.htm Bio at BillDavisRacing.com]
* [http://www.racing-reference.info/driver?id=henslje01 Stats at Racing-Reference.info]