Childress spends time in Washington D.C.: Team [#29, #31, #33] owner Richard Childress spent the better part of March 2-3 in Washington, D.C. Childress, a member of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation’s board of directors, attended a March 2 dinner hosted by the bipartisan organization. On March 3, he had a full schedule of morning and afternoon meetings with members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives on behalf of the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma. Childress then attended the sixth Annual Armed Forces Foundation Congressional Gala that evening with drivers Bowyer and Burton before flying home to North Carolina.(RCR)(3-4-2010)

New colors for Bowyer at Atlanta, visits plant: Clint Bowyer’s Chevy will sport new colors this weekend when the burgundy, white and gold paint scheme of BB&T adorn the #33 for the first of nine events where the Winston-Salem, N.C., corporation will be featured as the primary sponsor. Bowyer will pilot the #33 BB&T Chevy in the next three NCS races. Bowyer and the rest of the #33 team will visit General Mills’ Covington, Ga., facility on Thursday, March 4. The team members will be given a tour of the plant and interact with the factory’s employees. The Covington, Ga., facility makes several cereals, including Cheerios, Chocolate Cheerios [awesome!], Honey-Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cookie Crisp.(RCR), see image of the BB&T scheme on my #33 Team Schemes page.(3-3-2010)

RCR Forms Partnership with Hall of Fame Racing Owners: Richard Childress Racing has entered into a partnership agreement with a group led by San Diego Padres executives Jeff Moorad and Tom Garfinkel. Moorad, the Padres’ vice chairman and chief executive officer, and Garfinkel, the team’s president and chief operating officer, will assist RCR in its business development and growth opportunities, and cooperate on other strategic initiatives. They will also participate on RCR’s internal advisory group. “Over the past three years, Richard has become a trusted friend,” said Jeff Moorad. “We believe in NASCAR and this opportunity allows us to be a contributing part of a winning organization, led by someone who we respect and trust.” In 2007, Moorad, Garfinkel, and their ownership group purchased Hall of Fame Racing from NFL legends Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach. The team suspended operations after the 2009 NASCAR season. “I’ve gotten to know Jeff and Tom and feel that they can add a lot to what we’re doing,” said Richard Childress, president and chief executive officer of RCR. “This allows us to bring our individual strengths together and benefit all involved. I have learned over the last 40 years that you have to keep innovating and improving to be successful. This new partnership will complement our already strong organization.”(RCR)(2-28-2010)

Townley cited for underage possession of alcohol: Nationwide Series driver John Wes Townley [#21 Chevy] has been cited for underage possession of alcohol. Townley, who is 20, was cited Thursday. He apologized to NASCAR and his Richard Childress Racing team in a statement issued late in Saturday's race by his race team. "I made a big mistake and feel terrible about it," he said. "I have learned a valuable lesson and will do everything I can to make it up to those I have let down." Car owner Richard Childress said Townley made an error in judgment that will be handled internally at RCR. "Drivers are human and make mistakes like everyone else. However, we do not condone his behavior," Childress said. Townley finished 15th in Saturday's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.(Associated Press)(2-28-2010)

The Hartford Renews Its Richard Childress Racing Sponsorship : The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., announced its 2010 sponsorship of Richard Childress Racing’s #33 Chevy and driver Clint Bowyer. For the second straight year, the company is the primary sponsor of the #33 Chevy for three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races and an associate sponsor for the remaining events. “The RCR sponsorship is a wonderful experience for our customers and employees,” said Mitch Jawitz, Vice President, The Hartford. “This year, we plan to offer even more ways for NASCAR fans to get involved with the racing experience. Just like Bowyer’s pit crew, The Hartford team is fanatical about keeping our driver’s lives moving forward uninterrupted.” The Hartford’s #33 primary paint-outs will run at Darlington Raceway on May 8, Pocono Raceway on August 1 and the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana on October 10. Throughout the race season, the company, which celebrates its 200th anniversary this year, will highlight its bicentennial and provide opportunities for fans to engage with the Richard Childress Racing team. This will include contests, sweepstakes and giveaways, as well as exclusive promotions for members of The Hartford Racing Club. The Hartford will also be an associate sponsor of RCR driver #31-Jeff Burton in the Sprint Cup Series. Both Bowyer and Burton will serve as spokespeople for The Hartford focusing on the auto insurance program. For more about The Hartford’s commitment to racing and The Hartford Race Club please visit www.thehartfordracing.com.(RCR), see an image of the scheme on my #33 Team Schemes page.(2-24-2010)

TRG form alliance with RCR: TRG Motorsports announced a strategic alliance with Richard Childress Racing for its 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup program. In this new agreement, RCR will provide cars, chassis repairs and testing resources for TRG’s Sprint Cup Series operations. TRG will team with Stewart-Haas Racing for Pit Crew support to coordinate faster pit stops. “All of these new partnerships are really a great thing for us as an organization,” Team Owner Kevin Buckler said. “As a one-car team, our resources have been limited in the past. This is really the best of both worlds for us to work with strong, successful organizations like RCR and Stewart-Haas.” After its first full year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, TRG Motorsports begins 2010 with Championship-winning driver Bobby Labonte in the #71 Chevy, Crew Chief Doug Randolph, a new executive team led by Torrey Galida and Grand-American Championship-winning Driver/Owner Kevin Buckler, the organization will build on its winning history for a successful future and is poised as a serious competitor. Despite being a one-car operation in a sport filled with multi-car teams, TRG Motorsports brings a new business plan and organizational outlook, positioning itself to successfully go toe-to-toe with the powerhouses of NASCAR. With a solid strategic alliance with Richard Childress Racing and engine program through Earnhardt-Childress Racing Technologies, TRG will begin its second year of Cup competition with a strong stable of Chevrolet Impalas and a vision to succeed. Sponsor TaxSlayer.com makes its return to NASCAR with TRG as the primary sponsor for a portion of the 2010 season [13 races]. TaxSlayer.com made its debut in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series last year at Watkins Glen International Raceway and served as the primary sponsor of the #71 a total of six times in 2009.(TRG)(2-10-2010)

RCR Honors Former Crew Member D.J Richardson: Richard Childress Racing will honor former pit crew member and front tire changer D.J. Richardson with memorial decals during Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway. The #29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevy will carry the decals behind the front tires for the February 6 Budweiser Shootout. The helmets of the #29 Shell-Pennzoil over-the-wall crew members will also don special decals for the 2010 season. All three of RCR’s Sprint Cup Series entries will carry the decals for the 52nd annual Daytona 500 on February 14, and its Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series entries will also carry the decals for their season-opening races. Richardson passed away December 25, 2009, from complications from the H1N1 virus. He joined RCR in July 2009 and finished the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season with the #29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevy team. The 2005 Sprint Cup All-Star Rear-Tire Changer Champion began his Cup Series career with Andy Petree Racing in 1999. He also worked for Penske Racing, Hendrick Motorsports and Braun Racing. The Leominster, Mass., native was 37. “D.J. should be jumping off the wall and changing tires for us again this season so we wanted to honor him in this special way,” said Richard Childress, president and CEO of Richard Childress Racing. “He was a valued member of the RCR family and is missed as we start the 2010 season.”(RCR)(2-6-2010)

Furinture Row, RCR expected to finalize alliance: UPDATE 2: #78-Furniture Row Racing will put the finishing touches on its technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing this week. A meeting is scheduled on Friday between principles of the two companies in hopes to strengthened the single car operation at FRR and in essence create a satellite fourth car for RCR. "While the team may look the same on the outside, eternally we're much stronger," said Joe Garone, general manager of Furniture Row Racing. "One of the assets with the alliance with Richard Childress is our ability to be secure in the top 35. "During the last quarter, we decided we needed to run the full season. Around May or June, we realized how much it hurt us not to run the full season. We can race on the Furniture Row sponsorship, but it wouldn't allow us to expand to a second car. Our primary goal is to have the #78 team run at 100 percent efficiency." FRR will continue its partnership with Kevin Harvick Inc., with the pit crew. FRR contracts the over-the-wall crew who work at KHI full-time and pit Harvick's Nationwide Series cars.(Fox Sports)(1-29-2010)
UPDATE: On the surface it looks basically the same. But behind the scenes it's a whole new look for the Furniture Row Racing team, which made significant personnel moves during the offseason as it readies to return to a full 36-race NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule in 2010. The team's driver (Regan Smith), car number (78) and car manufacturer (Chevy) remain the same for the new campaign, which kicks off Sunday Feb. 14 with NASCAR's traditional season opener -- the Daytona 500. But when you get beyond the driver, car make and car number, the Denver-based Furniture Row team is quite different than it has been in recent years. For starters, more than 20 new employees were hired during the offseason, increasing the team's growing staff to more than 60. Along with the new hires, Furniture Row Racing went even a step further to enhance its program by forming a technical and engineering alliance with Richard Childress Racing. "Being a single-car team against the mega, multicar teams has put us at a huge disadvantage over the years," said Garone. "Now that we have formed an alliance with RCR, we will have the ability to be secured in the top 35 and keep a better pace with the other multicar teams. RCR has always been a leader and a winner, and we are proud to be affiliated with Richard Childress and his outstanding organization."(Furniture Row Racing PR)(1-29-2010)
UPDATE 2: Furniture Row General Manager Joe Garone told Sirius NASCAR Radio's Sirius Speedway with Dave Moody that as part of the team's new technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing, Childress is now a owner of FRR. Garone said the details of the technical alliance are not fully ironed out, but will give the team a major boost in engineering. He confirmed that the team will not utilize Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines, choosing instead to continue their relationship with Hendrick Engines.(1-29-2009)

BB&T renews sponsorship with RCR: Richard Childress Racing has extended its partnership agreement with BB&T Corporation for the full-service financial institution to continue as a primary sponsor for eight races and the all-star race and a major associate sponsor of Clint Bowyer’s #33 Chevy for the remaining 28 races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The Winston-Salem, N.C.-based corporation will also retain its status as the Official Bank of Richard Childress Racing. The primary sponsorship races for BB&T on the #33 Chevy occur within BB&T’s primary branch banking footprint, which extended into Alabama while simultaneously increasing its market share in Florida last August. The #33 BB&T Chevy will compete March 7 and September 5 at Atlanta, March 21 at Bristol, March 28 and October 24 at Martinsville, April 25 and October 31 at Talladega, May 1 at Richmond, and May 22 at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the annual Sprint All-Star Race. “The BB&T/RCR partnership has been successful both on the track and in the marketplace,” said Richard Childress, president and CEO of Richard Childress Racing. “BB&T has created winning activation programs for its customers and clients through its racing activities and RCR has been fortunate enough to take BB&T to the winner’s circle in the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series, as well as the head table at the Nationwide Series championship banquet. We appreciate their continued commitment to RCR and the sport as a whole.” The BB&T/RCR partnership began in 2007 with a partial Nationwide Series program with Bowyer. The program expanded in 2008, with primary sponsorship in the Nationwide Series and a two-race primary position with Bowyer’s Sprint Cup Series program. Bowyer & Company went on to capture the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers’ championship and won the Sprint Cup Series race in May at Richmond International Raceway. The program moved fulltime to the Cup Series in 2009.(RCR), see an image of the scheme on my #33 Team Schemes page and images from 2009 on my 2009 #33 Team Schemes page.(1-14-2010)

Clint Bowyer honored: NASCAR driver #33-Clint Bowyer has donated and raised thousands of dollars for good causes in his Kansas hometown in recent years, and now Emporia has shown its gratitude. Bowyer’s racing career began on a practice track at Flint Hills Towing on Emporia’s Graham Street. He was on hand Wednesday as the city unveiled a sign adding the honorary label “Clint Bowyer Boulevard” to Graham Street. “It’s very gratifying, very humbling to think back where this was where it all started, and to see your name on top of Graham Street,” Bowyer said. “It’s such an important street to me and my family, it means a lot to me.” Two years ago, Bowyer established the 79 Fund with the Emporia Community Foundation to aid the city and people in need. The fund has helped a city clean-up project and the city Arts Council’s building fund, and this month provided 20 Christmas trees to Emporia families and shoes for 85 children enrolled in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. “I love this town,” Bowyer said. “There’s no better people than right here in Emporia. We’re taking baby steps and looking at getting more money raised to put into the programs, and I’m looking forward to making (the fund) a bigger and better thing for the children and making the community a better place,” he said. Although Bowyer is famed as a driver, he has looked to another sport — golf — to help build the 79 Fund. A charity golf event and auction he hosted in 2008 brought in about $160,000; this year, the event raised $250,000. Bowyer and the 79 Fund’s board of directors are looking to the future and planning to make sure the fund can help as many people as possible. “We’re looking forward to building on what I consider a good first two years,” Bowyer said. “That’s the thing, you want to be able to give back and you want to make sure it goes to a good cause that people are getting a lot of good things out of.”(Kansan/AP)(12-26-2009)

Forsyth Tech names motorsports school after Childress: The motorsports technology program at Forsyth Technical Community College has been renamed Richard Childress Race Car Technology at Forsyth Tech. Richard Childress Racing has a long-standing relationship with Forsyth Tech and employs a number of its graduates. Forsyth Tech has been named a Center of Excellence for Motorsports by the North Carolina Motorsports Consortium. Childress was on-hand for the announcement held on the campus in Winston-Salem, N.C.(RCR PR)(10-28-2009)

RCR making big changes; #07 team could go away: Team owner Richard Childress, speaking on Saturday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, addressed the struggles of Richard Childress Racing and the possible departure of Kevin Harvick when the driver’s contract expires at the end of the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. “All I’ve got to say is we are making a lot of changes,” said Childress. “We’ll probably be announcing more changes next week coming. We’re using these last races to get prepared for 2010. We know we have to be better. We’ve seen some improvements. I think if you look, we’ve been up front with the different [RCR] cars in the last few weeks. This [new] car is very touchy and right now Hendrick [Motorsports] is right up on top of it. They’ve got it figured out for the most part. Kevin’s going to be with us next year and [sponsor] Shell’s going to be with us. “We’ll just see how everything plays out in the future. I didn’t see his interview [at California]. I’ve heard some comments on it but whatever happens, happens. We just move forward.” Moving forward may not be an option with #07 entry of RCR’s Casey Mears without sponsorship for 2010. The departure of Jack Daniel’s, which has revealed its intentions to leave the company at the end of the season, leaves Mears without a sponsor. Without sponsorship in place by the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the #07 team will likely go away next season. “Right now we’re meeting with companies. We’ve had several meetings,” Childress said. “As you know, the economic times are tough right now for sponsorship. We’ve got interest in it. We’re wanting to run it. We can’t turn it into a park and start. I don’t want to do that. We’ve got some sponsorship for a few races next year but to be competitive that isn’t the way to do it, so we’re kind of weighing our options to see what we’re going to do.” Childress seemed pleased with the progress of Mears, who joined the organization this season. Despite being 19th in the standings, Mears has notched three top-15s in his last four starts. “We’re working hard,” Childress said. “We’re doing a lot of capital investments moving into next year on some new stuff. We’re making changes in our personnel, we’re going to be making more changes in the next weeks to come.”(SceneDaily)(10-17-2009)

RCR reorganizes management: Richard Childress Racing has reorganized the management of its competition department to provide its race teams and sponsors with consistent improvement in on-track performance. “This reorganization is the result of a process that took place over the past few months to improve our performance,” said Richard Childress, president and CEO of Richard Childress Racing. “On-track performance is the lifeblood of RCR and everything we do is impacted by how competitive our cars are week-in and week-out. Our common goal remains the same: win races and compete for championships. The creation of these new processes and priorities, with greater accountability, will improve our performance and every aspect of our organization. “
Mike Dillon retains his position as vice president of competition, but with revised responsibilities. His primary focus will continue to be competition department oversight. He reports directly to Childress.
Scott Miller, crew chief for RCR’s #31 Caterpillar Racing team with driver Jeff Burton in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, has been named to the revised position of director of competition. His primary responsibility is oversight of the key areas of race car performance: speed, handling and durability. Miller reports directly to Dillon and will continue his dual responsibilities until the conclusion of the 2009 season. The crew chief position for the #31 team will be filled at a later date.
Kent Day, RCR’s technical director of competition, now reports directly to Miller. Day’s primary responsibility is in setting the technical direction of race car development.
Will Lind, an employee of RCR since 1982 and the director of competition the past two seasons, will assume the new role of business director of competition. Lind will continue to report directly to Dillon.
“Scott’s experience as a team engineer and a crew chief gives him a solid foundation in both disciplines and provides a unique perspective on the direction the sport is taking from the competition side,” said Childress. “We’ve also shifted some responsibilities in other areas of the competition department to maximize performance and efficiency. RCR has some of the best people in the business and they will only become better by working within this new structure.”(RCR)(9-2-2009)

Changes at RCR? Changes are coming at Richard Childress Racing. "We're getting ready to make a lot of changes to hopefully change [the performance]," Team owner Richard Childress said last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. He wouldn't get any more specific, but those close to the situation said there will be some major restructuring announced early this week that hopefully will improve performance. The organization already has made some changes within the teams to put the best at-the-track personnel with Clint Bowyer, the only one of RCR's four drivers with a shot at the Chase. Bowyer is 15th in points, 112 points out with two races remaining before the field is set. Jeff Burton is 18th, Casey Mears is 20th and Kevin Harvick is 24th. Childress has already switched the crew chiefs of Harvick and Mears in an attempt to improve performance, so any further changes likely will come in a shakeup of managerial or engineering structure.(ESPN)(8-24-2009)