on Wednesday, September 8th on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, hosts Rick Benjamin and Chocolate Myers spoke with Richard Childress about the status of negotiations with driver #33-Clint Bowyer.
Host/Rick Benjamin: “What’s the future of the #33 car and Clint Bowyer at this stage of the game with you?”
Richard Childress: “You know, we’ve tried and we’ve really worked really hard to put the deal together to keep Clint. It’s not 100% off the table but it’s getting tougher and tougher as the day goes by. Clint’s got a couple of really good opportunities there facing him. We just, for us it just didn’t seem that we could get everything worked out. Clint’s still a good friend. I want the best for him. I feel like that we’ve done a lot together and I hope that if we can’t put him in a car next year that he gets in a ride that he’s really good and happy with.”
Benjamin: “So the door’s not completely closed yet but almost there, huh?”
Childress: “Well, the door’s not closed for sure and it’ll always be open no matter where he ends up. But we’re still looking at other options and trying to put some things together. It’d be great to get him back in that #33 and run him but if we don’t I want him to have the best for him because he’s a great guy, a great talent, a lot of fun and I look at him as a good friend.”
SiriusXM NASCAR Radio is available to listeners nationwide on channel 90 on Sirius and XM Premier (formerly known as “The Best of Sirius”)(SiriusXM)(9-8-2011)
UPDATE – Bowyer: Bowyer has repeatedly said he wants a three-year contract extension to stay with RCR, but talks have seemed strained over the last month. Bowyer two weeks ago even expressed frustration over the free agency process and lashed out at how he was being characterized in the media of late. He called Childress’ Thursday comments “fair” and said there’s no updates in his situation. “There’s opportunities and stuff we’re just trying to weigh out and, again, you’ve got to have all the stars line up,” Bowyer said. “You can’t just have one piece of the puzzle or a couple pieces of the puzzle. You have to have the whole puzzle put together and that’s how you do that in today’s world and you’re wasting your time talking about it to any media because you don’t really have anything to deliver to them.”(Associated Press)(9-9-2011)
