The first step in the evolution of the “new” Richard Childress Racing took place Wednesday when RCR announced a number of changes within its competition department – primarily moving several current employees around to further maximize their strengths, talent and expertise.
Given how RCR has struggled in 2009, it was a move that was both necessary and timely. With the new faces in their new positions, it will allow the organization to start building for 2010, even though we still have one-third of the current season remaining.
Without any representatives in the upcoming Chase for the Sprint Cup, what team owner Richard Childress did makes plenty of sense. But if you allow me one small criticism: why didn’t something like this happen sooner? When guys like Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Casey Mears and especially Kevin Harvick showed how much of a struggle they were all collectively having in the first half of the year, I would have thought for sure that making some much-needed moves would have occurred earlier.
Sure, Childress switched a few crew chiefs around, most notably Todd Berrier for Gil Martin from Harvick’s to Bowyer’s team and vice-versa, but the change never seemed to make either driver any better, if not worse.
But now with Wednesday’s shuffling, I expect you’ll see some new life come to the RCR camp in the remaining dozen races of the season. I’ll even be so bold to predict that if the changes bring forth the hoped for result that Childress anticipates, one, if not more of his current drivers, may just wind up pulling a surprise victory out of their firesuits before the season ends.
Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bowyer or Burton, especially, reach victory lane. And even though Harvick is mired in the worst season of his career, his team can rest a bit easy knowing that he recently confirmed he’ll be returning for 2010.
Like building a new house, you have to have a solid foundation, and with the changes in the RCR camp, I think you’ll not only see a strong foundation emerge, but stronger walls and a roof, eventually, signaling a resurgence of the RCR brand in 2010.
Lastly, I’d like to thank everyone that sent congratulatory e-mails to me on Wednesday when I announced that I’ve joined FanHouse.com by AOL as its new motorsports editor.
I chose to “break” the story here on AutoRacingDaily.com because the ARD staff has been so supportive and nice since I joined up several months ago.
And even though Wednesday was my first day at FanHouse, I immediately got the feeling that its staff is a mirror image of ARD’s. Everyone is nice and dedicated to one thing: bringing you, the readers, the best coverage we can.
As I mentioned in Wednesday’s column, I will continue to write my daily blog/column here on ARD – and with FanHouse’s blessing. I’m very appreciative to be able to do so for and by both companies.
Now, let’s get ready for the weekend and we’ll talk about the race in Atlanta on Friday.
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