(Photos courtesy NHRA/National Dragster)

Last season when Cruz Pedregon announced he had hired Lee Beard as his crew chief, it was thought Lee was the last piece of the puzzle to Cruz’s success. After a DNQ to start the season at the WinterNationals, things never really got going for the Snap-On Tools Funny Car. Rumors began circulating that Lee Beard was relieved of his duties at Cruz Pedregon Racing and earlier this week, those rumors were confirmed.

Beard was brought on to be the crew chief on Cruz’s car after the departure of Danny DeGennaro at the end of the 2011 season.  Although Lee tuned Cruz to a win at the NHRA Finals in Pomona, it was not the season Cruz expected. Overall, the team finished fourth in the standings with one victory, a 22-20 round record and had two DNQs. The team struggled with consistency all year long. It seemed just qualifying was a challenge in most races, with Cruz needing to make it into the show in Q4. In 15 of the 21 races they qualified for, they did not make it past the second round. By comparison, Cruz’s 2011 season also yielded one win, but he finished third in the standings and had a better round record (29-21) with more appearances in the later rounds.

This was the second time that the two championship winners worked together in their careers. In 1992, Lee was the team manager for Larry Minor’s title-winning McDonald’s team with Cruz as the driver. For Lee, this was the second season in a row where he was relieved of tuning duties. In mid-2011, he was let go from Don Schumacher Racing after Johnny Gray got off to a slow start.

Cruz has not yet announced who his crew chief will be for the 2013 Mello Yello Drag Racing season nor are Lee Beard’s plans known at this time.