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Wellsville native Aaron Kramer is moving on up in the NASCAR industry.
Haas Factory Team announced Thursday it has hired Kramer to crew chief for driver Cole Custer and the No. 41 NASCAR Cup Series team in 2025.
Kramer, 35, will join the new Haas Factory Team at the conclusion of the 2024 season. Kramer will make the move over from RFK Racing, another Ford team that Haas will share a technical alliance with in 2025. Kramer currently serves as the lead race engineer for Cup Series driver Chris Buescher and the No. 17 team.
Kramer said becoming a NASCAR crew chief has been a goal since he was working on go-karts growing up in Allegany County.
“This is a great opportunity and I’m very grateful for it,” Kramer said. “I’ve been working toward the crew chief position since I was racing go-karts in high school. It’s a proud moment to have it come with Haas Factory Team. Their alliance with RFK makes the learning curve a little less steep because I’m very familiar with the people and processes at RFK.”
Kramer has been with RFK since 2016, rising from an electrical and data systems engineer who oversaw the team’s 8-post advanced track simulator rig to lead race engineer on RFK’s No. 60 NASCAR Xfinity Series team in 2018, Haas said.
Kramer was promoted to the Cup series in 2019, working as the secondary race engineer for two years with the No. 6 team and driver Ryan Newman before moving to the No. 17 team in 2021 with Buescher.
Kramer is no stranger to victory lane. He was on the pit box for Buescher’s first Cup Series win with RFK in 2022 at Bristol Motor Speedway and later became the lead race engineer for the No. 17 team in 2023. Kramer has since been a part of three more race wins with Buescher, who had a career-best finish of seventh in the 2023 championship standings.
“Aaron’s engineering pedigree and his history with RFK Racing are great assets for Haas Factory Team. We’re proud to have him join our team,” said Joe Custer, president, Haas Factory Team. “NASCAR, and the Cup Series in particular, has become very engineering-driven. Limited track time and the nuances of the NextGen car have put a premium on simulation and data, and to really maximize all that information, you need people who can apply that information to the car and work closely with the driver to fine-tune the car.
“Aaron is that person, and we’re confident he can build a team of like-minded people who will have our race team ready to go for 2025.”
Kramer’s NASCAR journey, from Wellsville to North Carolina
Kramer showed up to his final day of high school with a U-Haul hooked to the back of his truck. He skipped the pomp and circumstance of graduation and struck out for North Carolina, the epicenter of stock car racing.
He worked as “a mechanic, a tire guy, a shop guy” for small NASCAR teams for years, he told The Spectator in 2018. Kramer was a car chief for Brian Keselowski, RFK co-owner Brad Keselowski’s brother, before deciding to pursue the engineering side of the sport.
Kramer earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2016. While at UNCC he found time to be the front-end mechanic for the team’s No. 37 Cup Series entry his freshman year, and also built engines at Arrington Racing Engines during his college career.
He eventually joined Penske Technology Group in 2016 before moving to RFK.
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A new adventure with Haas Factory Team
Kramer’s new driver, Cole Custer, is the reigning Xfinity Series champion and current Xfinity Series point leader. Custer, 26, is moving back to the Cup Series after winning a race at Kentucky Speedway and the Rookie of the Year award in 2020.
“I’m very happy to have Aaron join Haas Factory Team,” Custer said. “Crew chief is a crucial piece in the makeup of a race team and Aaron brings a lot to our program. His background will really be a plus for me and our whole organization. Both of us still have jobs to do this year, but it’s reassuring to know that he’ll be my guy on top of the pit box next year.”
Haas Factory Team is a new offshoot of Stewart-Haas Racing, which will no longer operate in 2025.
“Having Cole as the driver is a huge asset,” Kramer said. “He’s highly motivated and dedicated to his craft. He puts in the time away from the track so that he’s ready every time he climbs into the racecar. That’s what you want as a crew chief. We’re going to push each other and support each other to get the best results possible.”
This article originally appeared on The Evening Tribune: Wellsville’s Kramer named NASCAR Cup crew chief for Cole Custer
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