Richard Childress Racing
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| owner | Richard Childress |
| Racing series |
Sprint Cup Nationwide Series Camping World Truck Series |
| Championships | 6 Sprint Cup 4 Nationwide Series (3 drivers / owners, 1 owner) 1 Camping World Truck Series |
| Start number (s) | # 3, # 27, # 31, # 33 (Sprint Cup) # 2, # 33, # 62 (Xfinity Series) # 33 (Camping World Truck Series) |
| driver |
Austin Dillon (# 3-Sprint, # 33-Xfinity, # 33 Camping World) Paul Menard (# 27-Sprint, # 33 Xfinity) Ryan Newman (# 31-Sprint) Brain Scott (# 2-Xfinity) Ty Dillon (# 3-Xfinity, # 33 Camping World) Brandon Jones (# 33 Xfinity) Brandan Gaughan (# 62-Xfinity) |
| Manufacturer | Chevrolet |
| Place of the workshop | Welcome , North Carolina |
| Homepage | www.rcrracing.com |
RCR Enterprises, LLC , doing business as Richard Childress Racing ( RCR ), is a US NASCAR team. It competes in the Sprint Cup with Chevrolet as manufacturer and the drivers Kevin Harvick , Clint Bowyer , Jeff Burton and Scott Wimmer . The Nationwide Series also competes with Clint Boywer, Kevin Harvick and Tim McCreadie and Scott Wimmer. The team is owned by former racing driver Richard Childress . For Richard Childress Racing, Dale Earnhardt , Ricky Rudd and Neil Bonnett, who are regarded as legends by the fans, drove .
Sprint Cup
Car # 3 / # 29
Richard Childress Racing made his debut at the Talladega 500 in 1969 with a 1968 Chevrolet and starting number 3. Childress himself drove the car and finished the race in 23rd after problems with the axle . In 1972 the team returned and took part in 14 races, with Childress himself at the wheel. The team drove their first full season in 1976. That year, Childress achieved eleven top 10 results and finished eleventh in the championship. Over the next few years he scored many top 10 results but was never in a position to win a race. In 1981 Childress decided to end his career before the end of the season and brought the reigning Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt as a driver to the team, who brought his sponsor Wrangler with him.
After six top 10 results, Earnhardt left the team and Ricky Rudd took over the helm for the 1982 season together with Piedmont Airlines as a sponsor. Rudd drove the car in the 1982 and 1983 seasons and finished both ninth in the championship, scoring two wins in the latter. At the end of the 1983 season, Earnhardt returned and replaced Rudd. In the following two decades, Earnhardt won six championships together with his crew chiefs Kirk Shelmerdine and Andy Petree as well as Goodwrench as sponsor from 1988. In the late 1990s, Earnhardt's performance slowly but steadily deteriorated and resulted in only one victory in the 1997 season. 1998 After more than 20 starts, he won the Daytona 500 for the first and only time . In 1999 Earnhardt scored two wins, one at Talladega Superspeedway and one at Bristol Motor Speedway , where he turned Terry Labonte on the final lap. In the 2000 season, it seemed like Earnhardt would find his way back to his old form when he finished second in the championship behind Bobby Labonte . Hope was growing among his fans that he would be on the way to his eighth title win the following season. The 2001 season ended tragically: At the season opener, the Daytona 500, on February 18, 2001, Earnhardt had a fatal accident in the very last corner before the finish on the Daytona International Speedway when he was pushed from behind and hit the outer wall. Childress then withdrew starting number 3 and changed the team's starting number to 29 and the car's color scheme. The then Busch Series driver Kevin Harvick was selected as the new driver.
After three races, Harvick beat Jeff Gordon by a few inches at the Cracker Barrel 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway , dedicating the win to the late Dale Earnhardt. After a second win at Chicagoland Speedway , Harvick won the title of Rookie of the Year . In the 2002 season, his notorious temper escalated when he said over the radio that he was deliberately trying to shoot another driver in a race in the Craftsman Truck Series . NASCAR suspended Harvick for the next race, where he was replaced by Kenny Wallace . With one win in the season he finished 21st in the championship. In 2003 he won the prestigious Brickyard 400 and thanks to eleven top 5 and 18 top 10 results, Harvick was fifth at the end of the season. The following two seasons he finished in midfield when he was 14th in the championship. With five wins and fourth place in the championship, Harvick delivered his best season so far for Richard Childress Racing. Harvick then extended his contract with Richard Childress Racing until 2009.
In the 2007 season the team was supported by two sponsors. The main sponsor was Royal Dutch Shell and Hershey's for some selected races .
Shell controversy
After his 2007 Daytona 500 victory , Harvick's car angered NASCAR's gasoline supplier Sunoco. Accordingly, the large Shell logo on the car and the team's overalls would violate the ban on gasoline suppliers as sponsors, since Sunoco had acquired exclusive rights. Since then, the logo on the car has been reduced and the Pennzoil brand has been brought to the fore. The Shell lettering can still be seen on the sides of the car.
Car # 07
The car with starting number 07 was originally intended for Kevin Harvick. But after Harvick took over the car with the starting number 29 after the death of Dale Earnhardt , Jeff Green got the cockpit. The car made its debut as number 30 at the NAPA Auto Parts 500 at the California Speedway in the 2001 season and finished 21. After six more races, Green achieved the first pole position at the Sharpie 500 at the Bristol Motor Speedway . In the 2002 season, the team played their first full season and Green scored six top 10 results, finishing in 17th place in the championship. Despite his pole position at the Daytona 500 of the 2003 season, he was replaced by Steve Park after racing at Richmond International Raceway . Due to mediocre results, his contract was not renewed at the end of the season and Childress selected Johnny Sauter as his driver for 2004. After 13 races, Sauter was fired and replaced by Dave Blaney , who would drive the rest of the season with the exception of the Dodge / Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway , where he was replaced by Jim Inglebright . When Jeff Burton became vacant and moved to Richard Childress Racing, Burton took over the car until the end of the season. After Robby Gordon left the team to start his own, Burton switched to the number 31 car and Blaney got the car with Jack Daniel’s as the main sponsor. At the same time, Childress changed the start number to 07 with reference to the slogan "Old No. 7 ” from Jack Daniel's. Blaney scored only two top 10 results in the 2005 season and finished 26th in the championship. As a result, Blaney moved to the 2006 season in the number 22 of Bill Davis Racing and Clint Bowyer was the new driver of the number 7. In the 2007 season he made it to the Chase for the Nextel Cup for the first time and the first victory for his team at the Sylvania 300 on New Hampshire International Speedway .
Car # 31
For over a decade, the number 31 car was Richard Childress Racing's test and development car. He made his debut in the 1988 fall race at North Carolina Speedway as starting number 22 and with Rodney Combs as driver, where he was last. The next use took place in the 1993 season as starting number 31 with Neil Bonnett , a long-time friend of Dale Earnhardt, at the wheel on the Talladega Superspeedway . In this race Bonnett was involved in a serious accident on his comeback, but survived it without major injuries. After another race for Richard Childress Racing, Bonnett died while testing the 1994 Daytona 500 in the number 51 car from Phoenix Racing .
In the 1996 season, the team and car returned with reigning Craftsman Truck Series champion Mike Skinner for five races. Realtree sponsored four of the five races. Skinner achieved three top positions in qualifying and started one race from second on the grid. 1997 was the first full season with Skinner as a driver and the hardware store chain Lowe’s as sponsor. He achieved pole position on both races of the season in Daytona and prevailed against the barren field of rookies to secure the title of Rookie of the Year. Due to some injuries in the 1998 season, he was temporarily replaced by Morgan Shepherd and Childress' son-in-law Mike Dillon . In 1999, Skinner finished tenth in the championship with Crew Chief Larry McReynolds and after two pole positions, after leading them early in the season. Skinner never won a points race, only two show races in Suzuka and Motegi, as well as a few other races in which there were no points for the championship. In the 2001 season he suffered injuries in the first laps of the inaugural race at Chicagoland Speedway . Robby Gordon stepped in as a replacement, but he never made it into the top 10. Skinner returned to the Bristol Motor Speedway , could no longer build on his previous achievements, so that Gordon took the wheel again. Towards the end of the 2001 season, it was announced that Gordon would drive the car for the 2002 season. In the season finale at the New Hampshire 300 on the New Hampshire International Speedway , he fought with Jeff Gordon in the final laps for victory, which he successfully won.
Gordon took advantage of the wave of success and together with the new sponsor Cingular he achieved five top 10 results in the 2002 season and was 20th in the championship. In the 2003 season he won both races on the street circuits and improved to 16th place in the championship. After his performance deteriorated again in the following season, Gordon Richard Childress Racing decided to leave and started his own team with starting number 7. Jeff Burton took over the car and scored three top five and six top 10 results in the 2005 season, placing him in 18th place in the championship at the end of the season.
In the 2006 season, success came back to Richard Childress Racing. Burton finished seventh in the Chase for the Nextel Cup . He also achieved four pole positions and his first win after 175 races at Dover International Speedway . Due to the merger of AT&T with BellSouth , AT&T slowly began to dissolve the Cingular brand and to advertise its own brand accordingly with starting number 31. This name change, however, equated to a new sponsorship contract, which was a thorn in the side of Sprint Nextel as a sponsor of the series, which led to a lawsuit between AT&T and NASCAR.
AT&T court process
AT&T asked NASCAR several times to be allowed to advertise its own AT&T Mobility brand on the car with the starting number 31. NASCAR refused this each time with reference to the sponsorship deal with Spring Nextel. After AT&T failed to get their logo on the rear of the car, the company sued NASCAR on March 16, 2007. On May 18, AT&T was granted an injunction to replace the logos. After NASCAR won an appeal hearing on August 13, it ordered the removal of the logos from the Sharpie 500 . On September 7th, an agreement was reached between AT&T and NASCAR, according to which AT&T may advertise their brand on the number 31 until the end of the 2008 season.
Car # 33
The car with the starting number 33 debuted as starting number 90 in the 2003 season at the UAW Ford 500 on the Talladega Superspeedway with John Andretti as driver. It was sponsored by AOL 9.0 and the number 90 was used as a marketing measure. In 2004 it was announced that Kerry Earnhardt would drive the car as starting number 33 with Bass Pro Shops in five races of the 2004 season. Mike Skinner drove the first race, the Daytona 500, and finished in 22nd place. Kerry Earnhardt drove the car in the other three Restrictor Plate races with a 24th place as the best result. In the 2005 season he went to the start in all four Restrictor Plate races and achieved a 17th place in Talladega as the best result. Street course specialist Brian Simo finished tenth on the Infineon Raceway . In April 2005 Clint Bowyer made his debut in Phoenix , who drove for Richard Childress Racing in the Busch Series. In Homestead, Scott Wimmer qualified the car for the race, which he finished in twelfth place.
Nationwide Series
Car # 2
The car and team with starting number 2 originally came from the Craftsman Truck Series in 1999. Kevin Harvick became the first driver of the car with AC Delco as a sponsor. He won three races and was named Rookie of the Year despite missing the spring race at North Carolina Speedway . In 2001 he won the championship of the Busch Series while he also competed in the Winston Cup . In 2002 rookie Johnny Sauter drove the car to victory at Chicagoland Speedway and finished 14th at the end of the season. The following year Ron Hornaday Jr. drove the entire season, won once and was third in the championship. In 2004 he built on the performance of the previous year and finished fourth in the championship with a victory. In 2005, Clint Bowyer took over the wheel of the car and finished the season runner-up in the championship with victories at the Nashville Superspeedway and Memphis Motorsports Park . In 2006 Bowyer drove the starting number 2 and was third in the championship.
Car # 21
The number 21 debuted in the 2000 season with Rockwell Automation as sponsor and Childress' son-in-law Mike Dillon as driver. In his first year he scored two top 10 results and finished the season in 23rd place. After six races in the 2001 season, Dillon injured himself at Bristol Motor Speedway and fell out for the remainder of the year. Since then he has taken on other roles in the team. Replacement for Dillon was Mike Skinner , who was temporarily unable to compete due to an injury of his own. Jeff Purvis , who won at Pikes Peak, drove for Skinner . After Skinner was fired, Robby Gordon took over . In the 2002 season, Jeff Green and Jay Sauter drove the number 21.
In the 2003 season, Kevin Harvick returned to the Busch Series and drove all the races he could. On the weekends when Harvick couldn't drive, Johnny Sauter took over . At the end of the season, the car won the Owner's Championship. It was the first time in the history of the series that two different cars had won the driver and team owner championship. Harvick has been the main driver of the car since the 2003 season. His co-drivers were Clint Bowyer in 2005 and Brandon Miller in 2005. Jeff Burton also drove the car in 2005 in Bristol. During the 2006 season, Harvick and Burton shared the car, which was sponsored by the United States Coast Guard . Burton won three more races at Atlanta and Harvick, so that they were already five races before the end of the season by over 700 points ahead. AutoZone became the new sponsor in the 2007 season, and Harvick was joined by Timothy Peters before being replaced by Tim McCreadie. The car has been driven by Bobby Labonte since the 2008 season .
Car # 29
The number 29 car made its debut in the 2005 season at Bristol Motor Speedway as part of a promotion for Reese's Chocolate and Peanut Butter Lovers Cups. In this campaign Chocolate Lovers was advertised with the start number 29, while the start number 21 carried the advertisement for the Peanut Butter Lovers. The plan was for Jeff Burton to drive number 29 while Kevin Harvick drives 21. After qualifying did not take place due to rain, the line-up was swapped so that both cars could take part in the race, because Harvick was automatically placed for the race via the Past Champion Provisional and the starting number 21 via the Owner Points. Harvick won the race and Burton finished second. Later in the season, Mayflower Transit sponsored a race with Jeff Burton at the wheel.
On March 17, 2006, Holiday Inn announced that they would sponsor the number 29 for ten races with Jeff Burton as a driver. The debut of these ten races took place at the Richmond International Raceway . Burton finished in the top 10 in all four of the final races, including a win at Dover in June.
In the 2007 season , the starting number 29 will be used for a full season for the first time. Scott Wimmer and Jeff Burton share the cockpit. Wimmer got some top 5 results, while Burton won the Sam's Town 300 , Nicorette 300 and Camping World 300 .
Craftsman Truck Series
Car # 3
In the early years of the Craftsman Truck Series, Richard Childress Racing entered the series with its own team. The car was a number 3 Chevrolet sponsored by Goodwrench. Mike Skinner drove the car for the first two years, winning the series' first championship in 1995 and 16 races. After Mike Skinner left the team, Jay Sauter became the new driver. He scored four wins and finished all three seasons in the top 10 of the championship. After the end of the 1999 season, the team was promoted to the Busch Series, where the car with the starting number 2 is put up.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of March 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ LAWSUITS - CINGULAT / AT & T vs. NASCAR
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