Childress: On Purvis, Harvick, Cowboys
By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
July 29, 2001
1:22 PM EDT (1722 GMT)
LONG POND, Pa. -- Richard Childress is not too busy that he can’t heave a healthy sigh of relief every now and then. And Sunday morning at Pocono Raceway was one of those times.
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Richard Childress
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Childress was looking typically bright and chipper -- even considering the time of day when he stopped by the NASCAR hauler in the Pocono infield to see NASCAR president Mike Helton. The fact that Helton had finished one meeting then immediately went in with team owner Joe Gibbs did not daunt Childress one bit.
He exited the office trailer and was intercepted by MRN Radio’s Joe Moore. A simple stand-up one-on-one interview turned into Childress holding court for a crowd of print, Internet, TV and radio media that ebbed and flowed from a couple members to 12-15.
Childress took advantage -- or the media took advantage of his momentarily stopping his hectic pace -- to buttonhole him on a variety of subjects. They ranged from Jeff Purvis’ popular NASCAR Busch Series win Saturday, Kevin Harvick’s arduous chase for NASCAR titles in two divisions, the future of his Busch program and his negotiations about a possible partnership with the Dallas Cowboys.
Childress had flown to Colorado to watch his Busch teams compete in Saturday afternoon’s NAPA AutoCare 250 at Pikes Peak International Raceway. The trip was worthwhile -- “fun” was the way RC described it -- and only involved a simple return at 11 p.m. ET Saturday after Purvis’ win and Busch point leader Harvick’s third-place effort.
Childress on Purvis’ victory:
“I knew Jeff has all the talent, he just needed to have it put all together. I was so happy for him, as well as the whole 21 Rockwell team ‘cause those guys have really worked hard and came close to winning several times. To be able to put it together with Jeff only the second race it really says what Jeff’s made of. He done a great job, he really listened good on the radio and did the things that you’ve got to do to win.”
On Harvick’s quest for the Busch championship and Winston Cup Raybestos Rookie of the Year:
“The biggest thing (in getting through the month of July) was Mother Nature. She worked with us the whole time. That was the thing we were most concerned about. If we would have got a bad day with the weather it could’ve threw a curveball at us. Yesterday was a big hurdle to cross. We’ve got one more to cross with Memphis. If we get it behind us we’ll be rolling.”
On the rest of the 2001 Busch season:
“Jeff could run some more races in the Rockwell car. We really don’t know. We’ve got to see how Mike’s (Skinner) healing process goes. The thing we were gonna do is look at other drivers in the car, also. You know, we looked at Travis Kvapil -- we put Ted Christopher in there. It’s great to have a company like Rockwell behind us that will let us use it to look at other drivers. It’s been a fun deal and we’ve learned a whole lot as a race team.”
On his negotiations with Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones:
“I think it would be good for the sport, ‘cause there’s a lot of Cowboys fans out there. They’re No. 1 when it comes to brand recognition, I guess you would call it. They’re a great organization and anytime you can get involved with people like that it’s a great plus. We’re looking for stuff further down the road -- we do special event cars, we do several different things. It’s an opportunity I think could be good for NASCAR and it could be good for RCR.
“We don’t know exactly how, or if it’s gonna come together. We’ve done a lot of talking -- we’ve been talking for over six months, probably -- maybe longer than that, so it’s been a pretty good kept secret.”
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