Richard Childress Racing was once at the top of the heap in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but there were no Sprint Cup victories for any of his three Cup teams in 2015. Ryan Newman came close to a championship in 2014 though he didn’t win a race, and Childress is looking at how to improve his team to get it back to top status.
“He’s been running around the shop, making sure that things are better,” driver and grandson Austin Dillon said. “He asked me what I’d been doing the other day and I really didn’t have anything to tell him. He was up in the ECR engine area trying to help find something better.”
Childress will field three cars in the Cup series with the usual driver lineup of veterans Ryan Newman, Paul Menard and Dillon.
Childress also announced a new technical alliance with Leavine Family Racing who had competed part-time in the Sprint Cup series with Michael McDowell. Last season the team had an alliance with Roush-Fenway Racing and Ford Motor Company. LFR will join forces with Joe Falk’s Circle Sport racing team. McDowell will run at least 26 races with the team and the rest with Ty Dillon. They will run Chevrolets with Childress’ ECR engines.
It has long been the wish of Leavine Family Racing owner Bob Leavine to run the entire schedule, but he lacked the funding to make that a reality.
“The manufacturer and alliance switch provide our team with the best opportunity to improve on-track performance and to create long-term sustainability,” said Leavine. “This was the right time for us to make this change. We have been turning over every stone looking for the right plan for our team and our people in 2016, and we’ve finally found a great fit that’s going to help us continue to grow both on the track and as an organization.”
“I’m happy to be working with Bob (Leavine) and the team to combine our efforts for a successful 2016 and beyond,” said Falk. “We’ve put together a top notch program obtaining all cars and engines from RCR.”
RCR will also run NASCAR XFINITY Series races with Ty Dillon and others.
