Childress looks to solutions

Richard Childress Racing has been considered one of the top-tier teams in Sprint Cup Racing for several years, going back to the mid-eighties when its driver Dale Earnhardt won six of his seven Cup titles in a span of only nine years. The RCR team, however, is experiencing one of its worst seasons in recent memory in 2009, especially in the Sprint Cup Series.

RCR’s Nationwide Series program isn’t experiencing the level of success this year that it has in recent years, but the organization has scaled back in that series, usually only running one car (as opposed to two in previous years) and having no full-time Nationwide Series drivers in its stable. Even so, RCR does have two Nationwide wins so far this season.

On the other hand, RCR has four full-time teams in Sprint Cup competition after adding the No. 33 car for the 2009 campaign. So far, the team seems to have faltered, either because of despite the addition of a fourth team.

Not only does Richard Childress Racing have no representation whatsoever in the Chase for the first time since the Chase’s inception, but none of the four teams have been able to manage a win through 31 races in 2009.

All four teams combined only have nine top-five finishes -- four from Clint Bowyer, three from Kevin Harvick, two from Jeff Burton, and none from Casey Mears.

In the final races leading up to the Chase cutoff, Bowyer looked to be RCR’s only hope of getting a car into the Chase. He fell short, though, and now sits 15th in the points standings, highest of any RCR driver.

Mears and Burton are barely in the top-20 right now, with Mears in 18th and Burton in 19th. Harvick isn’t even in the top-20, as he currently holds down the 21st position.

Harvick’s frustration with the team’s performance this season has been so intense that the rumor mill not so long ago had Harvick trying to get out of his contract (that runs through the 2010 season) a year early to search for greener pastures. Whether he was unable to get out of his contract, he had a change of heart, the rumors were blown out of proportion, or a little of each, Harvick is now saying that he’s committed to driving for RCR next season. But at the same time, he often doesn’t seem to be excited about it.

As team owner Richard Childress has done several times in the past, he’s shaking up his personnel, hoping to find some combination, or at least one combination that clicks. He’s not waiting until the end of the season to do it either.

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.

After Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Martinsville Speedway, Todd Berrier will take over as crew chief on Burton’s No. 31 team. Doug Randolph will then take over for Berrier as crew chief of the No. 07 driven by Mears. Randolph makes the move from the organization’s No. 29 Nationwide Series car driven by Burton, Bowyer, and Stephen Leicht. Dan Deeringhoff will assume crew chiefing duties for that car.Scott Miller, who has been the crew chief of Burton’s No. 31 since 2005, will become the full-time director of competition for RCR. He was named to that position in September, but has only been in that capacity part-time, while also continuing his crew chief duties.

“Todd, Doug, and Dan are all proven winners, so the goal of these moves is to put them in the best situations to continue that success,” Childress said.

There will also be minimal changes changes made within the crews of the No. 07 and No. 31 teams.So many changes made all at once may set the RCR teams back just a little before they can move forward, as the new driver-crew chief pairings get used to each other, but at this point, the 2009 season is already in the toilet, and RCR may as well go ahead and get started on preparations for 2010.

“I’m confident that making these changes now will be a benefit to the teams for the rest of this season as well as in preparing for 2010,” Childress said.