Promises For 2013 At Richard Childress Racing

Our Beyond The Flag Editor In Chief has included an assignment for this week to include an article about Richard Childress promises that next year will be a better year for Richard Childress Racing. I’m sorry boss, but I don’t think Mr. Childress can magically bring back Dale Earnhardt Sr. If you look back at Nascar History, the only success ever at RCR, came from The Intimidator.

April 16, 2011; Talladega, AL, USA; ARCA Racing Series driver Ty Dillon (41) celebrates in victory lane with his grandfather Richard Childress after winning the 3 Amigos 250 at Talladega Superspeedway. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Liles-US PRESSWIRE

In fact, If you remove Dale Sr’s statistics from the RCR totals, you wind up with a very mediocre racing organization that is in the Earnhardt/Ganassi, Penske Racing category. At best, a second or third tier organization. They are showing some muscle in the Nationwide and Camping World Truck series’, and that is more than likely due to the interest in his grandsons. They have done nothing to beef up the Cup side for over a decade now.

With Kevin Harvick being the Marquee driver for RCR, and if you look at Kevin’s stats, you will find that his success will resemble the real estate market. You know, down for a few years, then up for a couple of years. For instance, Kevin has no wins in 2012 to this point, and is sitting back in tenth position. In fact, no one in this organization has a win this year. The only guy in Sprint Cup that has  had less attention than Harvick this year, is maybe Carl Edwards.

In 2010 and 2011, Harvick amassed seven wins, that was three wins in 2010, and four in 2011. In 2008, and 2009 once again he had no wins. That was two seasons in succession without a win. From 2005 thru 2007, he had one win each in 2005, and 2007, but in 2006, he had the best season of his career with five wins. In 2004, again, he had no wins. In 426 cup starts, Kevin Harvick has only 18 wins, and five poles.

What I believe causes this type of statistic, is RCR takes too long to to figure out what all the good teams know about set ups, tracks, and engines. By the time they catch up, they have a couple of good seasons, then they get behind again, and the cycle continues to repeat itself. This is the Modus Operandi for Richard Childress Racing. Why wasn’t Dale Earnhardt caught up in this cycle you ask?

Dale Earnhardt Sr. had so much talent, and picked up the track knowledge so quickly, he was able to overcome the fallicies of RCR, and continue to win. Dale Sr. was in control of hiw crew chief, and race team. If they didn’t perform, and Dale wanted them out, they were gone. Ask yourself, how many Cup titles does RCR have that weren’t won by Dale? None is the correct answer.

Jeff Burton is getting somewhat long in the tooth, and hasn’t won a race since the Bank America 500 at Charlotte in 2008. Burton has had a total of  21 Cup wins in his long career, but only four since he joined RCR at the beginning of the 2005 season. The remainder came at Rousch Racing.

Paul Menard came over to the Cup Series in 2009, and has only one win, that coming last year at The Brickyard.

Mike Skinner was promoted in 1997 from the Truck Series, and ran the first Lowes Chevrolet in the Cup series until the 2001 season when he was involved in a wreck at Chicagoland, and had to eventually turn his seat over to Robby Gordon. In his entire Winston Cup career, Mike Skinner had no wins. He finished with 39 top tens, and six poles.

So as you can see by the statistics, the only success this organization has had, came from Dale Earnhardt. So when you ask, what promises Richard has made in order to be better next year, I’m wondering better than what?