There may not have been a bigger turnaround in 2006 bigger than what took place at Richard Childress Racing.
RCR driver Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton raced their way into the "Chase for the NEXTEL Cup," while rookie Clint Bowyer turned in an impressive freshman performance to give car owner Richard Childress a stellar season.
"Last year was a great year for us here at RCR, and we're going to set the bar even higher this season," Childress said. "We've grown a lot here over the years and that's due to a lot of hard work by a lot of great people. There's a lot of history here and a lot of wins as well as championship that we're really proud of."
Harvick, who signed an extension to stay with RCR early in the year, enjoyed one a career season in 2006. In addition to his Busch Series title, Harvick scored five NEXTEL Cup wins and finished fourth in the final standings.
“We had a plan last year, and we kept to it,” Harvick said. “And we’ve got a plan this year. You have to get off to a good start the first five weeks, and if you don’t, then you’ve got to make adjustments and get them going good the next five weeks."
Harvick's goal to start the year off on a positive note will come in different colors this year, with long-time RCR partner GM Goodwrench stepping down as the No. 29's full-time sponsor with Shell taking its place.
"The new sponsor, Shell-Pennzoil, for me is good," Harvick said. "It kind of gets you out from underneath that shadow of everything that we had with Dale. It’s hard for me to beat down somebody else’s path when you’re used to beating your own path.
"Not that Goodwrench wasn’t, but it’s just so much in the past that everything had to do with."
Burton's run in the team's No. 31 Chevrolet was one of the best comeback stories in NASCAR history. The veteran rejuvenated his career and the team with a stellar season and a run at the title.
That success has Burton excited about the 2007 season.
"We are mature enough to win a championship, we are together enough to win a championship, and focused enough," he said. "We've got the right people in place."
One cloud hanging over the No. 31 team is the status of sponsor Cingular, the brand that will soon disappear after the company was purchased by AT&T. With NEXTEL as title sponsor of the series, a new cellular phone company is not allowed to enter the sport.
"I can't tell you a whole lot, to be honest," Burton said. "I can tell you that Cingular is extremely excited about its involvement with AT&T. And they're excited about being involved in this sport. They're going to do everything in their power to continue.
"It's an interesting situation - and time will tell what happens."
Bowyer's rookie season saw the Kansas native score 11 top ten finishes on his way to finishing 17th in the final standings. Some solid runs have Bowyer enthusiastic about his chances in his sophomore season.
"We're pretty excited after the year this team put together a year ago," Bowyer said. "With teammates like Kevin and Jeff and the resources we have at RCR, who wouldn't be pumped up about our chances this coming year?"
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
as much as I am happy to see juan do well I sure was pulling for his car to run out of gas on turn 7!!!! flash that would be awesome if he had... a 1-2-3 rcr finish!!!!
__________________ Auto racing, bull fighting and mountain climbing are the only real sports... the rest are just games........ Earnest Hemmingway
Chevy and RCR continue partnership: Chevrolet, the winningest nameplate in NASCAR, will continue its partnership in NASCAR competition in 2008 with one of racing's elite organizations, Richard Childress Racing (RCR). "2008 marks Richard Childress's 39th year as a team owner and his cars proudly carry the Chevy bowtie," said Ed Peper, Chevrolet general manager. "At Chevrolet and GM Racing, we are very excited to continue a long and successful relationship with one of the best racing organizations in NASCAR, both on and off the track." RCR's lineup includes #29-Kevin Harvick, #31-Jeff Burton and #07-Clint Bowyer in the Cup Series and Harvick and Tim McCreadie in the #21, Burton and Scott Wimmer in the #29 and #2-Bowyer in the Buscg Series.(GM Racing PR)(8-18-2007)
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
RCR's 4th team may be part-time in 2008: Angelique S. Chengelis on ESPN2's NASCAR Now said that Richard Childress Racing is not going to expand to four teams just for the sake of it and sources say the team could run Scott Wimmer in a limited schedule in 2008, running 14 Cup races which also includes a full 2008 Busch Series season ride.(8-28-2007)
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
RCR still looking for 4th car sponsor, no driver signed: Richard Childress Racing has extended its own internal deadline to land a sponsor for its proposed fourth car until the end of this month. A team source at Richard Childress Racing said Saturday that contrary to Internet rumors making the rounds, the team has not signed David Reutimann and has nothing definite on a possible fourth car.(SPEEDtv.com)
AND: David Reutimann expects to get a contract proposal from Michael Waltrip Racing by early next week, but he didn't rule out going to another team. "It's an option," he said of re-signing with MWR. "It's a solid option. But I haven't seen the proposal yet."Reutimann would not expand on his options, but said recent improvements at MWR don't hurt the organization's chances. Sponsorship issues with Burger King and Domino's are the biggest question.(ESPN.com).(9-16-2007)
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Holiday Inn Renews with RCR: Holiday Inn has exercised the option in its current contract with Richard Childress Racing by signing a multi-year contract extension as the Official Hotel of RCR and the primary sponsor of RCR's #29 Chevy in the Nationwide Series with co-drivers Scott Wimmer and Jeff Burton. At the same time, Wimmer has reached agreement with RCR on a contract extension with the 10-time NASCAR championship-winning organization. The 2008 season will once again feature Wimmer and Burton as co-pilots of the #29 Holiday Inn Chevy [in the Nationwide Series]. Wimmer will also run a limited schedule of Sprint Cup Series events next season.(RCR PR)(10-25-2007)
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Richard Childress Racing is coming off of a career season in which all three of the organization's drivers — Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick — earned spots in the championship-deciding Chase for the Nextel Cup.
Each driver won a Cup race, was in the championship battle and enters 2008 with hopes of improving on that performance. And why shouldn't they? RCR has completed its engine program merger with Dale Earnhardt Inc., and the new Earnhardt-Childress Racing Technologies is producing the engines for both teams. Under the tutelage of Richie Gilmore, the group is confident that horsepower will not be an issue this year.
The teams have a greater understanding of the car model formerly known as the Car of Tomorrow and how to get the best performance from it. Like all other NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams, they got to tinker with it in the recently complete test at Daytona International Speedway and the upcoming sessions at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and California Speedway — all tracks that host races in the opening segment of the season.
The crew chief/driver combinations remain intact, and the trio seems only more intent on working together as a group. On the flipside, this is a group that saw a dip in performance in the closing months of last season — something they are intent on remedying this year.
Burton says that was, in part, due to the team putting so much into trying to learn about the new model while also competing with the old one. The team didn't get worse, it just watched as others got faster more quickly than it did.
He says that the team is behind at this point just because it is building all new cars, but that he feels good going into the year. With the building of new cars comes a bit more diversity between the models — building to each type of track than just working with one car in an effort to figure out the new model.
That's a good thing. So is the ability to focus on the new car instead of bouncing back and forth between models say the drivers.
I think there at the beginning of the COT races last year, we used the same car for a while," Harvick says. "We have a lot of different cars now. I think the biggest thing I'm looking forward to this year is racing the same car week in and week out. ... It's just hard on the teams to run two completely full-time race teams. It's basically two teams within one team, and then you multiply that times three and it becomes a lot of work."
The key will be continuing to evolve with that car, to keep up with the competition as everyone learns more about this model, and finds ways to make it perform better. Having three teams that both get along and work together toward that goal could help RCR in that endeavor.
Burton, Harvick and Bowyer seem to genuinely like and respect one another. There doesn't seem to be any clash of egos, any inability to share information, or to understand what one another is working on in this organization.
That should make that process of evolution roll along more smoothly.
"I think if you get stuck in that rut, you're going to get behind," Harvick says. "You have to constantly evolve. I think that's what we always do is try to evaluate what we're doing and find that you have to get faster, you have to get better, you have to get stronger, but sometimes that's not done with your group at the racetrack, it's done internally at the shop and making sure that the way the shop function and the people function and the way you put your cars together.
"I guess the productiveness of the facility and the cars is as important as anything because it's hard to make all the races week in and week out because you race so much. So you have to have enough stuff to be able to put all that together, but you have to get ahead at the same time."
RCR not only needs to catch back up to where it was earlier in 2007, but also to the other teams that have made advances. Clearly, this group evolved in the off-season as well. Is it enough?
It will be a few weeks before RCR's drivers know the answer to that question. What is clear now is that the team understands the task at hand and take a realistic approach to gaining ground with this new car, and that the team is pleased with the progress it has made.
Making the next step, though, could be as difficult as gaining ground the last two seasons has been. The team has made its place among the elite in the sport. Time will tell if it still needs to gain a little more ground to catch the Hendrick Motorsports organization that pulled away from the field late last season.
Still, if the team is that close to reaching the top, that's not such a bad problem to have.
"The hardest thing that we do in our sport is knowing when to do something different, and then of course what to do different," Burton says. "It's really easy when you're not having success to look around and say, 'Golly, we need to do a lot different.' When you are having some success, it's much harder to change things. I mean, that's just common sense.
"So when you get to the point where you're having success and you're running well, how much do you change and what do you change? ... When you're running 20th, what do we need to change and how much do we need to change it? It's much more easy just to play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and hope you hit it. When you're running well, it's hard to play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey because now if you miss it, you go back to running bad again. So in many ways it's a harder step, but it's at the very least an equal step."
Strong '07 for Childress
Richard Childress Racing was unsuccessful in their bid to win the Cup championship last year, but its three-car team put up impressive numbers nonetheless:
Wins Top fives Top 10s Laps led
Clint Bowyer 1 5 17 387
Jeff Burton 1 9 18 79
Kevin Harvick 1 4 15 271
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
# Childress named to N.C. Sports Hall of Fame: Richard Childress, the owner of Richard Childress Racing in Welcome, NC will be inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in May. Childress is one of eight honorees in the Class of 2008. The NASCAR team owner won six Winston Cup [Now Sprint Cup] championships with Dale Earnhardt Sr. behind the wheel, the Busch Series [now Nationwide Series] Grand National championship in 2001 and 2006 with Kevin Harvick and the Truck Series title in 1995 with Mike Skinner. His team became the first in NASCAR history to win the championship in all three national series. His teams have also won two Daytona 500s. Childress was inducted into the Davidson County Sports Hall of Fame in October. He also owns Childress Vineyards in Lexington, NC. The eight inductees will be enshrined at the 45th annual induction ceremony in Raleigh on May 15. They will be introduced at an afternoon news conference at the N.C. Museum of History. Formal induction will come during an evening banquet at the North Raleigh Hilton. Banquet ticket information is available from the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame in Raleigh at (919) 845-3455 or at the Hall’s Web site, www.ncshof.com. The museum is open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from noon until 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission to the museum is free.(Lexington Dispatch)(1-31-2008) Comment here
__________________ Auto racing, bull fighting and mountain climbing are the only real sports... the rest are just games........ Earnest Hemmingway
Can RCR continue to improve in '08 season?
Linear Mode
