This is a question that will be bothering RCR Racing this offseason, Are they ready to try it again? I am referring to RCR trying to run a four car operation again after a botched attempt in the 2009 season. The driver filling the fourth seat will be Paul Menard and he will be driving the #27 Menards Chevrolet next season. RCR was one of the heavy favorites coming into the 09 season because points wise Jeff Burton did well enough to finish 5th in the standings and Harvick did enough to finish 6th. Unfortunately, I don’t think Mr. Childress planned this one out too well. At this point there was a down economy and less money and fans were flowing at the race track and we still have this problem. Clint Bowyer was moved from the 07 car to a brand new team and the #33 General Mills Chevrolet and taking his old car was Casey Mears, who had just left Hendrick Motorsports after a tumultuous season.
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[/media-credit]According to points, Kevin Harvick is coming off his first championship and his teammates Bowyer and Burton came in 9th and 11th respectively. This is a chance for Paul Menard to prove the critics wrong that he is a force to be reckoned with. Most critics just credit his father for him being a race car driver. Enough with the father nonsense. His father is not racing the car! Obviously Paul knows something about turning a wheel. We need to give the kid a chance. Do you think he had great equipment down at Richard Petty Motorsports? Absolutely not. Take a look at RPM now. They have gone from a 4 car operation to a 2 car operation, leaving just Marcos Ambrose and AJ Allmendinger and the future of that organization is up in the air. Menard finished 23rd in points for the year with Allmendinger in 19th, Sadler in 27th, and Kasey Kahne was 20th despite leaving the team early for Red Bull Racing.
Menard has plenty more talent in my opinion than Casey Mears will ever have. Yes, his uncle won the Indianapolis 500, but that doesn’t help you succeed in NASCAR. Menard has 1 career NASCAR win and it came at a Nationwide in Milwaukee over four seasons ago. We will have to wait and see how Menard fares in 2011, but my prediction is that he will do better with Richard than he did with Petty. Is RCR financially ready to try this again? Remember that RCR didn’t dump Casey Mears after the 09 season because of performance, but of lack of funding and the lack of funding affected their performance on and off the race track. Mears had four Top 10 finishes and 0 Top 5’s.
Always follow the money. Despite his championship season, Harvick lost his primary sponsor Shell after four seasons and had to switch to Budweiser for the next year. The current instability of the economy always seems to show up during silly season. Now, who is going to be the lone duck at RCR? Childress knows from experience what happens when things go wrong with a big team.
The lone duck is going to be Jeff Burton in the #31 car. When they last tried this, Clint Bowyer looked really strong at the start of the season and even was second in points to Jeff Gordon at one point in the season. The lone duck that year was Casey Mears. Childress focused a lot of his time on the operations of Burton, Bowyer, and Harvick. Like I mentioned earlier, Bowyer moved to the brand new team after 2008. Childress neglected Mears and unfortunately had to leave after one season. It was pretty obvious that Mears was going to be leaving after Childress swapped crews.
Now, why is Jeff Burton going to be the lone duck? Lets break it down. Harvick is the #1 driver following his championship year. Clint Bowyer would follow him in second. Childress doesn’t want to neglect the new driver Menard because they know that he is definitely a better investment long term than Jeff Burton and he is a smart enough man to know that neglecting their newest driver would ultimately lead to decreased morale amongst the entire organization, not just Menard. Team members don’t want to hear the bad news. I see this as a good move for RCR and it will work this time as long as they focus on all members, but I expect Menard to have a better season than Jeff Burton.
Finally, this is my prediction. Harvick finishes highest in standings of all RCR drivers in 2011. Paul Menard will have a breakout year and come home 2nd, Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton will take the other honors.
I don’t think RCR will do as well in 2011 as they did this past year. And it won’t be because of a fourth team or the economy. It will have to do with better compitition and drivers fully up to speed on Nascar’s ‘let’s have at it boys’ policy. Harvick was the first driver to take advantage of that policy and as a result got a good jump on points. This coming year even the most laid back drivers of 2010 will be more than willing to race as agressively as Harvick or Kyle. When Kevin pulls his patented slide job you’ll find more drivers spinning him. I think there is going to be a whole bunch of beating and banging going on in 2011.
I think you’ll also see more teams capable of winning. Roush cars finally have an engine suspension that works. RPM is down to two cars but they have 2 good drivers and Roush equipment. Before their first race I predicted MWR would have a car in the chase in year 5, and 2011 is year 5. Reutimann threw away at least 3 top 5 finishes in 2010 because of TRD engine problems. Red Bull will have 2 top drivers in 2011 and if they share info you could see them contend for the chase as well. Basically there will be a lot more ‘A’ level cars and drivers in 2011 contending for the chase. Simply racing for points will have you looking on the outside of the chase.
It’s so easy to gloss over situations that you really know nothing about. RCR didn’t have a “botched” attempt at a 4th team in 2009. In 2009 their sponsor money ran out from jack which didn’t allow them a 4th team in 2010. They have all said at RCR that a 4th team wasn’t the problem in and of itself. As a company they got off and all their teams in 2009 sucked. They turned it around in late 2009 for 2010 and the rest is history. One more team wasn’t the problem, bad cars were the problem. You think Roush and his many teams can say it’s the number of teams that is they reason they ran so bad 3/4ths of 2010? No. They rand bad because their cars didn’t handle. Their cars handled toward the end of 2010 and so therefore they began winning again. Sometimes the media, even though you may or may not have been in this business for a while, take a short cut thru the truth. Ergo people just don’t pay attention to you or believe you when you write. If you can write a more thorough and thoughtful piece with logic, facts, and flow then you might be more believable, you might be seen as more professional. And you might even be read. I know it’s a novel idea — one which many of your colleagues also fail to grasp. There are some who research their work and have better pieces. But they are but a few.