Changes were already in the works at Richard Childress Racing. Although a driver has not been selected for the #30, sources say Kevin Hamlin will be the new crew chief. Chris Andrews, who was Robby Gordon’s engineer on the #31 Cingular Chevy, is expected to become the crew chief for that squad with a more experienced crew chief to become team manager later.( Yahoo Sports/Sporting News )(12-1-2003) UPDATE: Richard Childress Racing announced today Chris Andrews, former RCR team engineer, will begin his rookie crew chief season in 2004 with Robby Gordon and the #31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet team. In addition, to round out the rest of Team Cingular Wireless, the majority of the 2003 #30 crew members will join Andrews and Gordon to run for the 2004 NASCAR Cup championship. “Robby got used to working with an engineer instead of a crew chief from his days of driving Indy Cars so this will be nothing new to him,” said Richard Childress, president and CEO of Richard Childress Racing. “Chris and Kevin Hamlin were successful last year working side-by-side with Robby on the Cingular Wireless team and I see Chris making a smooth transition to calling the shots on his own. I think Robby and Chris working with the crew from last season’s America Online team can be a very successful combination.” An Evansville, Ind., native and 1992 graduate of Purdue Universitys School of Interdisciplinary Engineering, Andrews has been an employee at Richard Childress Racing since 1999. One of the first engineers hired to join RCR, Andrews has worked with every Cup and Busch team but started focusing most of his attention toward the #31 Cingular Wireless team the latter part of the 2002 season after the #29/#31 crew swap took place. I have known Robby for almost 10 years now and we have worked great together the last year-and-a-half so I am ready to just keep moving forward and work for a win every weekend in 2004, Andrews said. This is a great opportunity Richard is giving me. I am very excited and optimistic about what lies ahead because we are building great race cars and a great team.(RCR PR)(12-4-2003)
