Richard Childress wore the expression of someone who's learned to operate "in the big picture" as he calmly, thoughtfully answered the tough questions about how his mighty racing organization has endured the struggles and frustration of a winless 2009 season.Lost in all the Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin championship storylines, and the Dale Jr. non-championship hysteria, is the quiet dismay at RCR, which had three cars in the Chase for the Championship a year ago and not a single one of its now four-car stable qualify this fall.
Lead driver Kevin Harvick has publicly declared his intention to leave the team as soon as his contract expires in 2010, though veteran Jeff Burton has analyzed and rationalized and professed his optimism about next year. Clint Bowyer, who came closest to making the Chase, is still kicking tires in frustration.
And there's this real sign of the times: Childress said last week in Charlotte that he doesn't have full funding for his fourth car, the No. 07 Chevy driven by Casey Mears, and that he even considered -- but ultimately decided against -- making it a start-and-park operation. It may still end up a part-time entry without full-time sponsorship.
When times are tough at the six-time champion RCR operation, times are tough.
"All of a sudden, we fell off the wagon,'' Childress said. "We will get back on it though, I promise you.''
You want to believe Childress -- and you have to believe him.
The latest in a series of major organizational changes comes this week, as RCR announced it's swapping Burton's and Mears' crew chiefs and giving Scott Miller the position of RCR's Director of Competition -- removing the interim tag from Miller's title. Todd Berrier will start calling the shots for Burton's No. 31 Chevy and Doug Randolph will handle the job for Mears.
"I said previously that RCR would continue to adjust our team lineups in order to have the right personnel in place, and this is the next step in that process,'' Childress said.
NASCAR also needs RCR to collect itself or the Sprint Cup Series essentially becomes a Hendrick Motorsports in-house show -- something many argue already exists -- which is a worst-case scenario for a sport where legitimate competition elevates it from other forms of racing.
Richard Childress Racing was Hendrick Motorsports before Hendrick Motorsports was Hendrick Motorsports.
And Childress only needed one driver to be class of the field -- the late Dale Earnhardt, who drove RCR's black No. 3 to six of his seven Cup titles, dominating the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, when the shift to multi-car teams started changing the game.
Earnhardt won 37 races, four championships and finished runner-up in the championship between 1986-1991. And when he had a down season -- by his standards -- in 1992 (one win and 12th in championship) everyone started doubting driver and owner.
Earnhardt and RCR responded with the 1993 championship and a six-win year. He won four races in 1994 and that championship, too.
The cycle would repeat itself, and Childress said last week, if nothing else, the experience has helped him be better prepared today.
"In 1988, we had a real bad year, then we came back won in '90 and 1991,'' Childress recounted. "Then 1992 was a tough year, really a tough year and we came back won a couple more (titles).
"That's your peaks and valleys and you have it in life as well. And we can see the crest up there.''
Unlike Earnhardt, who fostered a close relationship with Childress, RCR's current stable of drivers has been more candid about their frustration with the team, more willing to vent publicly -- particularly Harvick, the 2007 Daytona 500 winner who hasn't won a Cup race since.
Rumors have persisted this season that Harvick was trying to buy out of the last year of his contract. And just two weeks ago, he told ESPN that he's ready to close the book on his career at RCR. The team has maintained that Harvick will fulfill his 2010 obligation to RCR.
"No one is happy when you aren't running well,'' Childress said. "I'm not happy, no one is. We just try to control it as well as we can. Kevin's a driver that really wants to go out and run well and win. I don't blame him for being upset when we don't. We just try to work through it as good as we can.
"I can remember one of those years ... maybe 1985 or '86, we didn't have a very good year. Dale was telling me, 'It has just got to be me.'
"I kept telling him, 'Dale, it's not you, we don't have the equipment you need' -- And he worked through it. It is just different times, and people look at things different.''
Childress acknowledged last week that the company has struggled at times mastering the COT. Burton was encouraged by what he sees as more emphasis on the engineering and aerodynamic sides of the team. The organizational changes are creating a better accountability -- including on the part of the drivers -- according to Burton.
The four RCR drivers not only are winless this season, but their combined nine top-five finishes are less than five other drivers' individual tallies. Tony Stewart has a series-best 14.
Championship leader Jimmie Johnson has led nine times the number of laps (1,716 laps) that the four RCR drivers have combined (188 laps).
RCR has gone winless only two seasons since 1982.
"One of the hardest things to do when you're having success is to change,'' Burton said. "We were the only team in the sport to put all their cars in the Chase over the last three years. We followed that up with putting nobody in the Chase which shows that we didn't act quickly enough.
"We will catch up, but we are behind at the moment.''
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-22-2009 @ 3:00PM
boderekisa5now said...
The first thing to do is get rid of that crybaby Harvick,he never could drive and is a cancer to any team.
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10-22-2009 @ 7:06PM
Brad said...
That's right all of the problems at RCR can be blamed on Harvick, where the hell do you come up with this crap can you please enlighten us all with some evidence or is this just another hate monger that just doesn't like KH.
10-22-2009 @ 4:31PM
anzajoe said...
than JOE BIBBS RACING SHALL DO THE SAME WITH YOUR
KYLIE BUSH CANCER,GEN.THE MARTINI was not your first driver,so do not keep decoying other posters.the kylie is your main bitch!.
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10-22-2009 @ 9:49PM
JACK BAUER 24 said...
It's true rcr has been having plenty of performance problems this year and so has harvick
but i wonder what harvick has to do with the other 3 drivers border of dumbness and stupidity?
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10-23-2009 @ 7:44PM
Kim said...
Kevin Harvick has nothing to prove to anyone! He is on a crappy team, IMO. Kevin and Delana Harvick are two of the most devoted couples when it comes to racing. Delana is always by Kevin's side and they do absolutely everything together, something I admire. They share ownership in their own team and they give to charity. Harvick and his wife are just plain "good people." As for Kevin's driving ability, as with many other drivers, he is simply in a slump. I personally would love to see Kevin move on to another, (better) team such as Stewart Haas or Hendrick. I think people would see a very competetive Kevin Harvick very quickly if he were with either one of those two teams.
Kim
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10-23-2009 @ 10:00PM
boderekisa5now said...
Give me a break,Harvick has never been competetive and always been a jerk. And as far as 'giving to charities',I would suspect we would ALL give to charity if we had the money,that line is so old it is pitiful.
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10-24-2009 @ 12:19AM
nzcr14 again said...
BORDER OF GHIZA, HOW COMPETITIVE HAS BEEN, THE ENTIRE RCR racket since DES hit "THE OTHER SIDE"?
Yes they were in the CHASE last year or whenever.
SO WHAT,EVEN J. METHFIELD A NON FACTOR as you said in the other blog was in THE CHASE in 2005.
BRIAN VICKS is in the chase this year. Has he ever been a factor? DAVE RUDEMAN almost made in.
BIG DEAL?Maybe next year, even DAVID GIRLIELAND or ROBBER GORDON will make in.Again, big deal.
10-26-2009 @ 8:15AM
Taylors said...
Obviously you don't know racing, Kevin is an incredible driver. He just has not had the engine that the other teams have had to compete when up front. He sure can get there with an inferior car though you moron!
10-23-2009 @ 10:32PM
Brad said...
Once again I ask where's your evidence border5, 3 cars from RCR in the chase last year (KH being 1) and none this year is obvious evidence that this is an RCR Problem and not a Harvick problem. Your Hate mongering toward Harvick has clouded any rational judgment on your end. KHI fields teams in the Truck and Nationwide Series giving other drivers the chance to compete as well as himself and this also provides and income to many families from the jobs created by his corporation, how many other drivers are giving back in this manner. It doesn't mean that they are bad people if they don't it just shows that your Non-competitive and jerk crap about KH just don't fly.
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10-24-2009 @ 5:55PM
THE EQUALIZER said...
WOHA BORDREKISA 5 I never knew that SKIM and BREAD STICKS were harvstick fans also.
They sure know how to pick the losers and cheaters,
don't they?.
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10-25-2009 @ 8:24AM
gonefishhinbbl said...
..RCR needs to realize that the NASCAR Regime is slowly trying to put them out of business. Don't believe me, ok..fine..But where is Richard Petty Motorsports? Or for that matter, Everham Motorsports?, DEI, anyone? See a pattern here? RCR has has its heyday. NASCAR only likes its past when it can make a quick buck off of it. & in the grand scheme of things, names like Petty, Childress, Allison, Yarbrough, or even Earnhardt no longer have an active roll in it. Say what you will, (its a free country).But with falling tv ratings, large areas of the stands covered by sponsorship banners because no one is sitting in them,millions of $$$ being spent by automotive companies who got tax payer assistance just to hang on, NASCAR is just a shell of its former self. The only thing i don't like its all the families, drivers, crew chiefs, crew members who ultimately that will find themselves on the unemployment line when NASCAR finally implodes.
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10-25-2009 @ 6:41PM
Brad said...
Once again the EQUAILICKER proves to everyone that he/she/IT knows NOTHING and can't bring anything to the blog of any relevance. Talk about a LOSER, LMAOROF.
Alohahaha, Brad
P.S. Gonefishin, can you explain the benefit of Nascar putting it's teams out of business?
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10-26-2009 @ 12:03AM
the mentalist said...
The answer to your question is; SO THEY CAN GO FISHING as the poster has,obviously,lmao.
10-27-2009 @ 3:41PM
uttley123 said...
Kevin Harvick, like Kyle Busch and many other NASCAR drivers tend to be little prissy girls when things don't go the way they want them to. As a whole, the entire RCR Organization has a few problems to deal with. They have had off years in the past, and will again in the future. I am willing to bet that even the mighty Hendrick organization will stumble as a whole at one point or another. Life is a roll of the dice and sometimes, you come up with snake eyes.
Personality aside, Harvick is a good driver and their team is actually showing signs of improvement. Harvick was actually in contention for the win at the fall race in Atlanta and has had top-5 finishes as well. His teammates have also had recent success with better than average finishes. Only time will tell in the end, but I believe that everyone, including Harvick, will be surprised by their performance in 2010, provided NASCAR doesn't screw around with the rules in the off season and that stupid COT.
Gonefishingbbl is right about the implosion of NASCAR if they don't get their collective heads out of their hind quarters. The COT and the scores of rules et al have choked the sport to its breaking point. In the formative years, the cars, drivers and owners all had personalities of their own and many wanted and liked this. There was a much larger gray area with the rules were applied. That isn't the case anymore. Honestly, if you parked a Toyota, Chevrolet, Dodge and Ford next to each other, without any markings on them, would you be able to tell the difference? Last week, Jack Roush was fined, along with Matt Kenseth and his crew chief because a seal was broken on the engine in the Nationwide series. We have cookie cutter cars, and cookie cutter engines, at least in Nationwide. Will this be next in Cup? Tom Curley in Vermont, sanctioned crate motors for the ACT (American/Canadian Tour). Even if you had a Ford, you got whatever the engine was from the Tour. Most of them, if I remember correctly, were Chevrolet engines. NASCAR is headed this way quickly. If it gets there, nobody will be in the stands. They might just as well race mini vans instead at that point.
Anyone from NASCAR, if you are reading this, you should give this some serious thought. While SAFER barriers and the COT are safer for drivers, there has to be a way for the drivers to actually construct, power, crew and race these cars without the an equal rights amendment attached to everyone.
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