April 25, 2009
By Ron Felix
Richard Childress met with the motorsports press on Friday morning at Talladega to talk about the crew and crew chief swaps he is going to make following this weekend's Aaron's 499 Sprint Cup race and will officially take place before the race at Richmond next Saturday night.
Childress will switch crews between the No. 29 and No. 07 teams, driven by Kevin Harvick and Casey Mears respectively.
Todd Berrier is currently the crew chief on the No. 29 team ( 16th in points) and Gil Martin runs the No. 07 team (currently sits 22nd in points).
It's not a decision that was made lightly or on the spur of the moment, Childress has given this some serious thought.
“I think it’s the whole sport itself. In today’s environment you can’t wait sometime half-way through the season," Childress said. "With the point structure like it is you’ve got to make changes to make the Chase. We only have so many races before the Chase. I originally started looking at Bristol where we were at with our race teams. Four of our best race tracks were Bristol, Texas, Martinsville and Phoenix. When I went to Montana (to go turkey hunting) I made up my mind out there that right after Texas, I was coming back and making the changes and we started the motion right after Texas and it took some time."
It's about a sense of urgency, it's about making or missing the Chase for the Championship, it's about Richard Childress pride and it's about doing the right thing for your sponsors.
Childress has the support of all the crews, crew chief's and the drivers.
"Mike Dillon and Will Lind both worked through this with me and we made a decision of what we were going to do," Childress continued. "We owe it to our sponsors and our fans to run better than we are and I felt these were the two teams right now that were the weakest.
"Both of them are great race teams. The No. 07 with Gil Martin and those guys have finished in the top-five two years in a row in the points. Kevin (Harvick) finished fourth last year with his team in the points. Sometimes a little chemistry or sometimes a little change makes a big difference. I’m not only doing it for these two race teams, we’re doing it to help RCR (Richard Childress Racing) as a whole.”
Only eight races into the 2009 season -- is it too early to be making changes of this magnitude? Not according to Childress, it may be too late already.
"To make the Chase, we’re not that far away if you really get to looking at how many more races, we’re a third of the way there," said Childress. "It will probably take two or three races to get this thing really working and you can’t afford to lose 50, 75, 100 points each race. So that’s the biggest reason we’re doing it when we’re doing it.”
But what if this swap doesn't work?
“We don’t have an option. It has to work. There’s no option,” Childress said.
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