Richard Childress Racing Management Q&A ahead of Daytona 500
Richard Childress, Chairman And CEO Of Richard Childress Racing (RCR), Andy Petree, Vice President Of Competition, Torrey Galida, Team President Of RCR, And Richie Gilmore, President, ECR Engines:
HIGHLIGHTS OF OPENING COMMENTS:
TORREY GALIDA
“I feel like there’s more anticipation and excitement around this NASCAR season than we’ve seen in several years. I think we took a lot of momentum from 2020 that we’re carrying into 2021. And with all the new tracks that we’re going to this year, the new ownership, the new drivers in the series, it feels like there’s a lot of anticipation out there. I know everybody at RCR and ECR is really excited to go racing. We’ve reached that point in the season where we’re ready to put all the preparations aside and just get to the race track. So, we’re all really anticipating heading to Daytona next week.
“We’ve got the same driver line-up and we’re really excited about that. Austin Dillon and Justin Alexander will be back again. Those two have been really successful together. Tyler Reddick and Randall Burdett are back together again as well. Tyler has been incredibly focused in the off-season. He’s been working on his road racing and spending plenty of time in the simulator. We’re also excited to have two new drivers here on our campus in Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez; so, two additional A-level drivers that are added to the greater RCR orbit. So those guys I know are going to make our team better. We are excited to have them on board. In the Xfinity Series, nobody is happier to be in the same car for the entire season this year than Myatt Snyder and his crew chief Andy Street. Last year we rotated several drivers. This year we’re going to run the No. 2 car full time with Myatt Snyder with TaxSlayer and other partners on board.”
RICHARD CHILDRESS
“We’re really excited about this year. Our drivers, I’ve never seen them work as hard as they’re all working off-season. We’ve got a lot of road courses coming up. Austin ran in the 24 Hour race to give him some more time. Tyler has been working really hard in our simulator and the Chevy simulator. All that is working really well. We’re working really closely. Chevrolet and GM have put together an alliance and Eric Warren is running Team Chevy. All the Chevy teams are working closer together than they ever have right now and I’m really excited about what we have going on with Chevy and with the Hendricks. We just did a HCD, which is Hendrick Childress Development. That’s the engine program we’re all working with. It’s just going to make every Chevrolet a lot stronger coming into the future. I’m excited about that.
“This year we’ve got Richard Petty Motorsports back; Kaulig Racing, and Trackhouse Racing. We’re really excited. With the drivers they have and being on campus here with them, I’m excited. Kaulig is really putting an effort out. You’re going to see them on more road courses this year. I think A.J. Allmendinger is going to be one of their full-time drivers that will be running a lot of the road courses. I don’t know if they’ve announced it yet or not. I probably just did.
“We’re really excited. We’ve got a lot going on. Everybody around RCR, when I walk around the shops and see the shops, they’re so excited just to be back to racing. And I’m excited. This year they’re even going to let the owners in. I have my mask. I’ll be able to go in and have some fun at the race track.”
ANDY PETREE
“We have a lot to get excited about this year. The sponsor line-ups are for sure exciting this yer. RCR has always done a great job with all the marketing partners that we’ve been able to bring on board. I feel like we give them great value. I think last year it was super challenging with all the COVID things we had to deal with and the way the sport in general had so many challenges; but we were able to at least reach some of our goals. We did win a race with Austin and Tyler was second in that race, but we didn’t get Tyler into the Playoffs. That was one of our goals, but we did get Austin in there. And we were able to make it to the second round with Austin and it felt like we had a good shot of going to the third round. We had an unfortunate failure in Vegas. But building on that success on the Chevy alliance, the biggest thing on that is not only are we all working closer together, we’re tapping into GM and Chevrolet’s engineering group. And that’s what they really kind of restructured this technical group for Chevrolet to do that. Eric Warren is the one that’s heading that up. I’m really excited about that. I’ve worked close with Eric Warren for about three years now and I have a ton of confidence in what he’s got, and I know his vision. And so I think we’re going to be able to do a lot more in 2021 than we have ever been able to do from a technical standpoint. So, I feel really strong about that.
“We were basically the leaders in that command center-type approach, where we’ve got people here and all the information being piped unto a purpose-built facility here at RCR. And we’ve got some super strong software tools, communication tools that we use to communicate real time at the race track. The teams, during the races and the practice sessions, although we haven’t had that many practice sessions, it’s still a big part of what we do, especially in this COVID-restricted roster limit that we have. We can’t take a lot of people to the track. They’ve restricted how many we bring. So, we’re able to utilize that command center to our benefit and we’re going to even strengthen it more in 2021 with the tools that we have and the people that we staff it with. Our goals for 2021 are to get all three cars that we race under this roof, Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon, and Daniel Suarez, into the Playoffs. We know that’s now going to be easy. It’s challenging to do that. But that’s our goal. We’re pretty optimistic that we’re at least going to have as good or better performance as we had in 2020. I feel like we’ve got a good springboard from last year to launch on. And with all the new things that Chevrolet and our partnerships bring to the table, I do feel like we’re going to put ourselves in a position to succeed.”
RICHIE GILMORE
“I’m very excited about 2021 to building off of the success that we had in 2020. We’ve got some new teams coming on board in Cup and Xfinity like Andy mentioned. We’ve got some new addition onto our Xfinity programs. We have four full-time Cup programs that we’ll build engines for. We have seven full-time Xfinity programs. We have 20 Xfinity programs going to Daytona. We’ve built over 50 engines this year at ECR going to Daytona. We’re very excited about our partnership with Chevrolet and our new partnership with Hendrick Motorsports that started at the end of 2020 with HCD. It was very successful the last seven or eight races we partnered-up and put a hybrid engine together and helped Chase Elliott win the championship in 2020. So, we’ve already seen some success in that partnership. We’re just going to keep building on that. The goal is to get all our cars in the Playoffs and hopefully get one into winning the championship in Cup and Xfinity. We had another strong run this year in the ROLEX 24. Unfortunately, we didn’t finish our streak. We had four years in a row of winning the ROLEX 24 but came-up a little short finishing second. But we’re very excited about this season moving forward; and with all the new teams and growing once again in 2021.”
MEDIA Q&A HIGHLIGHTS
IT’S BEEN 20 YEARS SINCE THE 2001 DAYTONA 500. ONE OF THE BIG THINGS WAS THAT NASCAR WENT TO OUTSIDE SOURCES TO INVESTIGATE AND START GIVING INPUT ON NASCAR’S SAFETY. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT?
RICHARD CHILDRESS:
“I think that was the right thing to do to get outside opinions and have other people look at the whole situation. I think as terrible as it was, and we’ll never get over losing Dale Earnhardt, but there’s a lot that came out of it (with) the safety part going forward. There have been some horrendous crashes. Austin Dillon’s and Ryan Newman’s. You can go on down the list of crashes and these drivers have walked away because of safety.”
WHEN KAULIG RACING RUNS CUP RACES THIS YEAR, DOES THAT PUT MORE WORK ON YOU TO BUILD CARS FOR THEM? DO THEY GET OLDER RCR CARS? HOW DOES THAT WORK?
ANDY PETREE
“They get current cars. The answer is yes, it is more work (laughs). But we’re prepared for it. We planned for that. And so we actually staff some of that race team for them as they go to the events with some engineering support and a crew chief from here. Basically, Kaulig still provides quite a bit to it but yes, there’s a fair amount of work but we get something out of that, too. It helps us when we build more cars and have more input and we’ll have another partner on the race track too, when we get to Daytona.”
NASCAR SAID THE TIMELINE FOR THE NEXT GEN IS ABOUT MID-JUNE. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE SCHEDULE AND THE TESTING? WHAT ARE YOUR OVERALL THOUGHTS ON THAT?
ANDY PETREE
“Yeah, I’ve been super impressed with the whole NextGen program. We were fortunate enough to be involved in that from the ground up. I feel like we’ve done our homework with it. NASCAR has done their homework. We’re prepared. All the venders have done a tremendous job of providing the parts and things that we need. And now the structure is in place to start ordering parts. We just started doing that. We won’t take delivery for a little while here, but we were able to initiate some orders for cars and parts to be ready when we do get our first car and do that first test as an organization. Now we have had some experience and time with the car on the track with NASCAR, but now it gets real. Now we’ve got to start outrunning other people, right? So, the pressure is going to be on us when we get our real race car.”
SOME PEOPLE VIEW DALE EARNHARDT AS A SUPERMAN. WHEN YOU LOOK BACK ON HIS CAREER AND YOUR TIME WITH HIM, WHAT IS THE SUPERMAN MOMENT WHEN HE SURPRISED OR SHOCKED YOU OR IMPRESSED YOU?
RICHARD CHILDRESS
“It would be hard for me to pick out one single hero moment. His career was unbelievable. He won, I can’t remember, like 11 of the 125’s when they were 125’s. Winning the Daytona 500 with him was one of the highlights of our career together because I knew what it meant to him and his resume. But not only did he impress me on the race track, he impressed me with so many things that he’d done for people away from the track that people would never ever know about. All of those things. That’s where he had a heart of gold.”
WHEN AUSTIN AND TY WERE DOING LATE MODELS AND GETTING READY FOR NASCAR, YOU SENT THEM TO MAX PAPIS. WHAT WAS THAT CONNECTION?
RICHARD CHILDRESS
“Max, at that time, had basically stopped racing. And he had so much experience. And he was a great tutor for both of those guys; not so much at the track but the things that he would have conversations with them was one of the things that Max really brought to the table. Both of them had so much respect for him, that’s the reason I wanted to hook them with Max.”
WHAT HAS IT BEEN LIKE FOR YOU HAVING LOST DALE EARNHARDT 20 YEARS AGO?
RICHARD CHILDRESS
“It’s tough. We were good friends. We hunted and fished and did a little bit of everything away from the track. He would call me at night at home, even when he was building his race teams and say I know you’re having that glass of wine. Let’s talk a while. And I miss those moments and so many things. But it’s been tough and not only tough on me and the family and I think on the race fans. I think a lot of them haven’t gotten over it yet. And I haven’t gotten over the loss. I think about. There aren’t many days that go buy when I don’t remember something about Dale. You walk in our museum and you look around and it just brings back so many great moments that we had together. It doesn’t seem like it’s been 20 years when we all lost Dale and wow, what do you say? We all just miss him.”
WITH ALL THAT’S GOING ON, HOW DOES THE NEXT GEN CAR FINANCIALLY AFFECT THE TEAMS?
RICHARD CHILDRESS:
“Every year we start working in October, even earlier sometimes, going into the following year we start building cars. This is going to be a little different. I think some of the components on this car, once we get it up and going, it’ll be a savings in the long run. We’ll be able to run them more and be able to run less cars. I’m excited about if you take the original cost and amortize it over next year or two years or three years, it’ll be a financial help to all the teams.”
ANDY PETREE:
“We’ve done this before and it is going to be a distraction from the 2021 season and it’s going to be a challenge for me and us, from a competition point of view to still try to limit that and get as much out of the Next Gen testing while really keeping our heads down and focused. Hopefully by the time we start testing it, we’re deep in the Playoffs and have our focus on that, too. It’s going to be a balancing act, but we’ve been prepared for it now for two years.”
TORREY GALIDA:
“I do feel like the fact that we built the original first couple of cars and it was our team that led the testing efforts will give us a leg up and we probably have a little bit better understanding of what to expect. I was really disappointed that we weren’t able to launch the car in 2021. It was probably a blessing in disguise for all of us because I think that extra year has helped the entire supply base and NASCAR and the teams, as well. I feel like we’re on track. We’ve got it in our budget and hope we’ve forecasted the right numbers in terms of what we’re going to need to build those initial cars and go to those first three team-wide tests. And, we had our manufacturer’s meeting with Chevy yesterday and I got to see multiple pictures of the new car for the first time with the approved body and I was really excited because I think it really looks like a Camaro. And I think the fans are really going to like the fact that it is a really good-looking race car.”
ON HOW VIBRANT IT WAS AT DEI, HOW EVERYONE ENJOYED WORKING THERE, AND THEN HOW THE REALIZATION CAME TO FINALLY TURN OUT THE LIGHTS
RICHIE GILMORE:
“It was a great environment and a great place to work. Dale was there, there were two different characters that we joked about a lot. There was this guy that came in Monday through Thursday that was an incredible boss and had such a big heart. And then on Thursday there was this guy that walked through with cowboy boots on and a black hat and Wrangler jeans. When he put that costume on, he meant business. He wasn’t our boss. He was the driver of that No. 3 car. And he was going to go whip our butt. And he was the driver of the No. 3 car and worked for RCR. All he wanted to do was beat us. He wasn’t our boss then. That was what was amazing about him. I listen to Richard’s stories and Andy’s, and he made us all what we are. He was the ultimate competitor.
“And the end was very tough. Being there from the beginning to the end was a tough deal to see the lights to go off there, and see the people walk out of there. I think one of the greatest things, the luckiest things that happened to me was to come here; because I think the closest thing to Dale was I think Richard and him are twin brothers. They’ve got a lot of the same personalities, they care about people, they’re great leaders. And Richard welcomed us up here and we’re carrying on a lot of traditions that are a lot of what Dale carried on every day. They want to beat everybody. They don’t care. Winning is everything. We’re very fortunate for our guys to come up from DEI to be a part of what Richard has built here and we’re just carrying on a lot of the legacy and the same attitude. And I very much appreciate that.”
IN YOUR BUSINESS, TO THIS DAY, DO YOU STILL ASK YOURSELF WHAT WOULD DALE DO?
RICHARD CHILDRESS
“Oh yes. I think our whole sport of Dale Earnhardt would still be around today. Our sport would have a different face on it. There would be a different look on NASCAR, I think, because he was very influential with the Frances and with racing. And yeah, he a really good mind when it would come to business. And we just had a great relationship. I could count any disagreement we had on one hand. It was just one of those relationships. They said it wouldn’t work when we got together, but we proved everybody wrong. We went out and did our thing.”
BEN KENNEDY DROVE FOR YOU FIVE YEARS AGO IN THE XFINITY SERIES. DURING YOUR TIME WITH HIM, DID YOU SEE SOMEBODY THAT WOULD TAKE A TRANSFORMING LEADERSHIP ROLE? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF HIS CURRENT ROLE AND WHAT HE’S DONE?
RICHARD CHILDRESS
“Going back to when I looked at Ben Kennedy today, I see big Bill France Jr. I see a man that has a mission, a goal; and I don’t think anyone would have ever expected what Ben Kennedy is doing today would be the success that he is. But as a driver he was good. He was real good. But I think he just kind of reminds me a whole lot of Bill Sr. when he was around. He just has that character about him that reminded me of that. I think he will help carry NASCAR for many years down the road.”