NASCAR News: Richard Childress Racing leadership appointments

Richard Childress Racing announced this week several key leadership appointments designed to strengthen the organization’s operations.

Andy Petree has been promoted to executive vice president of Richard Childress Racing, where he will play a larger role in all aspects of the 55-year-old race team. Petree, a 35-year veteran of the motorsports industry, most recently led RCR’s competition team as vice president of competition. In that role, Petree guided the organization to 23 race wins (nine in the NASCAR Cup Series and 14 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series) and helped RCR earn the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship in 2019. Under Petree’s leadership, RCR made seven NASCAR Cup Series Playoff appearances from 2017-2023. He was also instrumental in overseeing the development of the Next Gen Chevy.

While Petree’s responsibilities transition to a more macro-level oversight of the organization, a pair of long-time RCR employees with strong engineering backgrounds will take on enhanced responsibilities within the competition team. Justin Alexander has been promoted to competition director for RCR, while Eric Kominek will continue to add value to the organization in a reimagined technical director role.

Alexander will supervise all competition-related departments, providing leadership, coordination and support while also continuing to utilize his 20 years of motorsports experience to maximize the capabilities of RCR’s Chevys across the organization. Most recently, Alexander served as director of vehicle performance for Richard Childress Racing. In the past, he has also led the organization’s research and development efforts and notably guided Austin Dillon to all four of his NASCAR Cup Series wins while serving as crew chief of the No. 3 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Eric Kominek will continue to drive value for RCR as the technical director for RCR, overseeing all technical engineering activities for the high-performance motorsports team and focusing his energies on vehicle systems engineering, design and metrology. He also assumes the role of technical director for RCR’s NASCAR Xfinity Series teams. Kominek provides forward thinking and strategic direction in all areas of technical development at RCR and will continue to play an integral role in leading strategic technical-based partnerships, including technology collaborations with Dow and Lenovo. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.

“Andy Petree has been around racing his entire life in various roles and titles, from race car driver to car owner to two-time championship-winning crew chief for Dale Earnhardt, not to mention his contributions to motorsports through his work as a TV analyst for NASCAR Race Hub on FOX,” said Richard Childress, Chairman and CEO of Richard Childress Racing. “That experience and loyalty to RCR makes him the perfect choice to take on a larger role at RCR that transcends the competition side of our business. At the same time, Justin Alexander and Eric Kominek are both extremely talented engineers who are proven in their ability to lead and are going to be valuable in their respective competition-focused positions.”