Early career After graduating from
Ohio University in the spring of 2002 with his mechanical engineering degree in hand, Stevens’ persistence paid off in August when he landed his first job in NASCAR with
Petty Enterprises as a designer. Stevens worked at Petty Enterprises for three years.
Joe Gibbs Racing: 2005-present Xfinity Team In 2005,
Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) was undergoing an expansion from a two-car team with the Nos. 18 and 20 cars to a third team with the No. 11 car with
Jason Leffler. It was looking for race engineers, where he landed with the No. 20 car driven by former JGR driver
Tony Stewart and crew chief
Greg Zipadelli. After serving as race engineer with Zipadelli and Stewart from 2005 to 2008 – a stint that included 18 wins and a Sprint Cup championship in 2005, Stewart left the team after the 2008 season to become a team owner at
Stewart–Haas Racing. This gave Stevens the opportunity to work with rookie driver
Joey Logano as his team engineer, with Zipadelli remaining as crew chief for the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Another big break would come for Stevens at the end of the 2010 season as the JGR Nationwide Series shop underwent an expansion from two to three cars. Stevens was named crew chief in January 2011 for JGR's new No. 20 Xfinity team, for which Logano was the primary driver with a few others taking turns behind the wheel throughout like
Denny Hamlin,
Michael McDowell and others. While Stevens and Logano got off to a slow start in 2011, recording just one win, they reeled off nine wins the following year in 2012. But change was on the horizon at JGR once again the following year.
Matt Kenseth joined in 2013 to drive the No. 20 Sprint Cup Toyota while Logano moved to the No. 22 team at
Penske Racing, setting up another crew chief change for the JGR Xfinity program. Busch had raced for his own
Kyle Busch Motorsports team in a select number of Xfinity races in 2012 but decided to move his No. 54 ride back to JGR starting in 2013. With the move, JGR decided to pair Stevens with Busch, who is the all-time leader in Xfinity Series wins. It paid dividends right away as the pair combined for 19 wins, 46 top-five finishes, and 47 top-10s in 52 total Xfinity starts together in 2013 and 2014 which included 25 top-5s in 26 starts in 2014.
Cup Series Kyle Busch: 2015-2020 In 2015, Stevens was paired off with Kyle Busch in the Cup Series and won the title in their first try. He also became the first crew chief since
Jeff Hammond in 1982 to win the championship in his rookie season. In 2018 and 2019, Busch and Stevens earned the Regular Season Championship trophy. In 2019 at
Homestead, Busch and Stevens clinched their second Cup title.
Christopher Bell: 2021-present At the end of the
2020 season, it was announced that Stevens and Busch would no longer be paired with each other and that Stevens would crew-chief the No. 20 car, driven by
Christopher Bell. Bell and Stevens started the 2024 season, with wins at
Phoenix,
Charlotte, and
New Hampshire. During NASCAR's break for the
Summer Olympics, Stevens suffered a double knee injury while enjoying vacation time with his family. Stevens underwent successful surgery to repair both knees. In his absence, car chief Chris Sherwood would assume at-track crew chief responsibilities. Bell and Stevens would start the
2025 season with 3 consecutive wins at
Atlanta,
COTA, and
Phoenix. It would be the first time this achievement would happen in the and the first since the debut of the
Next Gen car. ==Personal life==