Brian Wilson
Crew Chief, No. 2 Discount Tire/Menards/Freightliner/Autotrader/Snap-on Ford Mustang
Brian Wilson enters the 2026 season in his 23rd year with Team Penske and he remains the longest-tenured active road crew member in the organization. He returns atop the pit box as crew chief of the No. 2 Discount Tire/Menards/Freightliner/Autotrader/Snap-on Ford Mustang in the NASCAR Cup Series, calling races for driver Austin Cindric.
Wilson and Cindric continued to build momentum during the 2025 Cup Series season, highlighted by a victory at Talladega Superspeedway and another berth in the NASCAR Playoffs. The season reflected steady progress for the No. 2 team as it continued to build consistency and compete for strong results across the Cup Series schedule.
Wilson was reunited with Cindric late in the 2023 Cup Series season when he took the reins of the No. 2 Ford Mustang team, and the pairing quickly found success. In their first full season together at the Cup level in 2024, Wilson helped guide the team to a race victory at World Wide Technology Raceway, a Playoff appearance and the best championship finish (11th) of Cindric's Cup Series career at the time.
The Wilson-Cindric combination has a proven history of success. Together in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, the duo claimed 13 victories, the 2020 drivers' championship and the 2021 owners' championship, establishing themselves as one of the most successful pairings in the series during that span.
Before returning to the No. 2 team, Wilson served as crew chief of the iconic No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford Mustang with driver Harrison Burton. The 2022 season marked a year of firsts, as Wilson embarked on his first full season as a Cup Series crew chief while Burton competed in his rookie season at NASCAR's premier level.
Prior to his Cup Series crew chief role, Wilson spent three seasons as crew chief of Team Penske's No. 22 Ford in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. In 2021, the team opened the season with a victory at Daytona International Speedway and went on to record five wins, 22 top-five finishes and 26 top-10 results, leading 1,150 laps and producing a series-high 13 stage wins en route to the owners' championship.
The 2020 season proved to be a defining moment in Wilson's career, as the No. 22 team recorded six victories, 19 top-five finishes and 26 top-10 results on the way to the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series championship - the first title of Wilson's career as a crew chief. The foundation for that championship run was laid in 2019, when the Wilson-Cindric tandem produced two victories, four poles, 14 top-five finishes and 24 top-10 results in 33 starts, culminating in a sixth-place finish in the final series standings.
During the 2018 O'Reilly Auto Parts Series season, Wilson forged a bond with Cindric, helping guide the No. 22 Ford to three poles, six top-five finishes and nine top-10 results in 16 starts. That same year, Wilson also led the team to six race victories with drivers Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney all earning wins behind the wheel.
Wilson's path began as a race engineer. Prior to becoming a crew chief, he spent five consecutive seasons as race engineer for Team Penske's No. 2 Ford in the Cup Series. During that time, Wilson played an integral role in helping the organization reach the highest levels of the sport, engineering Keselowski and the No. 2 team to the 2012 Cup Series championship while also contributing to the No. 22 team's 2010 O'Reilly Auto Parts Series title.
In 2009, Wilson transitioned to the No. 12 Cup Series team with driver David Stremme, helping the group earn 11 top-20 finishes and eight top-15 starting positions. The following season, Wilson worked alongside crew chief Paul Wolfe on Team Penske's newly formed No. 22 program, which emerged as a championship contender in its inaugural season. Keselowski powered the team to the 2010 O'Reilly Auto Parts Series championship, the first NASCAR title in Team Penske history.
Wilson rejoined the No. 2 Cup Series team in 2011, as the organization continued its upward trajectory. The team earned three wins and five top-five finishes, qualifying for the Playoffs and finishing fifth in the final standings. An even brighter horizon followed in 2012, when the No. 2 team captured five victories - including two during the Playoffs - en route to Roger Penske's first Cup Series championship.
A second-generation race engineer, Wilson is a native of Detroit, Michigan. He grew up around racing and began competing in go-karts at age eight. His father, Steve Wilson, was also a racer and in 1995 served as a race engineer on the No. 33 Skoal Bandit car.
Wilson began working part-time with Frank Kimmel's championship-winning ARCA team while attending North Carolina State University. After earning a degree in mechanical engineering, he joined Kimmel's operation full-time as a shock specialist. In 2004, Wilson was connected with Team Penske through his father, who retired from engine research and development at Richard Childress Racing. Wilson worked on the No. 77 car before becoming a shock specialist on the No. 2 team in 2006 and being named race engineer prior to the start of the 2007 season.
Wilson resides in Mooresville, North Carolina, with his wife Lindsey and their daughter Finley.