Richard Childress is looking for more success in '06. Credit: Autostock

Conversation: Richard Childress

Owner going through changes as NASCAR continues to expand

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Richard Childress continues to display a great diversity in his life as he plays his role as one of NASCAR's leading team owners.

As the 2006 season opens, Childress is in the midst of announcing a new array of sponsors, continuing to develop drivers and fielding five full-time teams in the Nextel Cup and Busch series; while also developing businesses outside of racing, such as his winery in North Carolina.

Childress gives his outlook for his teams in 2006, and talks about change at Richard Childress Racing, technology in racing, Toyota and the Car of Tomorrow.

	Richard Childress celebrated just one Cup victory in '05. Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers RCR 2005 Cup results Kevin Harvick No. W T-5 T-10 Rank 36 1 3 10 14 Jeff Burton No. W T-5 T-10 Rank 36 0 3 6 18 Dave Blaney No. W T-5 T-10 Rank 36 0 0 2 26 Kerry Earnhardt No. W T-5 T-10 Rank 3 0 0 0 61 Brian Simo No. W T-5 T-10 Rank 1 0 0 1 65 Clint Bowyer No. W T-5 T-10 1 0 0 0 69 Note: Bowyer takes over the No. 07 car from Dave Blaney TEAM PAGE •   Richard Childress Racing

Q: How are things looking for you at this test session?

Childress: I think we're pretty good and I feel we've made a lot of gains.

I feel that (Jeff) Burton came down here and he ran real well. Clint's running good and we've got Kevin's car on a totally different program right now that they're working on.

They're not looking to go fast -- they're just picking up on little things and trying to get crumbs here and there, and we think they'll be real good when they come back, I'm sure.

Q: With what you've seen so far, do you feel like this is possibly the best balance of chemistry among your teams at RCR that you've had in a while?

Childress: I think it definitely has been a plus, you know? I'm excited and Jeff's excited.

He and (crew chief) Scott Miller came down here and had a good test -- and they've been a couple other places to test and it's worked real good.

Kevin's solid and Clint's hungry -- he's just chomping at the bit.

Q: Did you see what Jeff said about the culture at RCR, and how it's been difficult to make changes after Dale Earnhardt's death, because if you proposed changes, it was almost as if you were going against him? Do you think that's been the case?

Childress: Well, that's an interesting way to look at it. I just think that we should have done some things two or three years ago -- and I put a lot of the blame on myself for not making some of the changes I (eventually) made.

I've made some changes with some people internally and done some things with people that have been there many, many years -- and now they're still there, but we've made changes.

It was tough to do. I heard a coach one time say that one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do was to pull out one of his top quarterbacks -- and I felt the same way.

Sometimes you have to make those changes -- you've got to separate the personal side and the business side and I was probably too slow to make some of those changes.

Q: What do you expect in the future with Toyota coming into Nextel Cup and Busch in 2007?

Childress: I think competition is healthy for anything and I think everywhere that Toyota has been, they've made everybody step it up (to keep up).

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I just think they'll be good for the sport and we welcome them to our sport. It's going to be good.

Q: Are you a big fan of the Car of Tomorrow concept?

Childress: We tested it at Atlanta and I haven't seen any significant changes that they've made to it yet to fix some of that (looseness in traffic) -- but they will fix it.

I'd like to see them clean the car up a little bit and make it a little slicker -- but not take away the drag. I mean, you could round off a few edges and still not go fast.

I would have liked to see them start out with the two-mile and up tracks, but they've got their reasoning for doing that.

I think it's going to be good for the fans and I think it's going to put on a hell of a show. It's going to be closer to the truck racing.

Q: Do you like the way the car is being rolled out, over three seasons?

Childress: Yes. They've told us what they're planning to do and it's going to be OK. It's the smart way to do it from the competition side (because) it gives them some time to tweak on it before we get to the two-plus-mile tracks.

Q: When is the next time you'll test your Car of Tomorrow?

TIRE SNUB IRKS RCR Goodyear invited four teams to test a 1.5-mile package this winter, and RCR wasn't among them. That didn't sit too well with Richard Childress.  •   Complete story, click here HARVICK TO TOYOTA? Unless Richard Childress can sign him to a long-term extension, Kevin Harvick will be a free agent in '07 when Toyota makes its NASCAR debut.  •   Complete story, click here

Childress: Probably some time in March. The way I understand it, we're going to get some solid rules out by March. And once we get some solid rules, it's worth putting some investment into it.

Q: Since it took you a while to change, and other teams aren't standing still, do your changes have to be bigger to catch up and stay even with the competition?

Childress: Yeah, I mean, people aren't setting still. The guys that won the championship and the guys that were in the Chase (for the Nextel Cup) aren't standing still waiting for us to catch up.

We've got to make bigger jumps than they do. I would have liked to see the (2005) season continue. At the end of the year we had some really good finishes.

We had two cars in the top 10 at Homestead and one in the top five. We had some good finishes and some really bright things looking up. So we were pretty excited about some of the things we saw even at the end of the year.

Q: Technology has become a bigger part of the sport, so what's your take on that?

Childress: We just finished our budget in December and the largest increase in the whole thing was in our engineering and development side of the business.

In R&D and engineering, we're probably over 20 engineers right now, and that's the wave of the future, if you look throughout our whole organization and see how many engineers we've got.

I just got back from England where I spent some time over there in 'Motorsports Valley' and it's interesting to see where NASCAR is going -- where those guys are already at.

By us bringing Nick Hayes in from over there, it has been a tremendous help and an eye opener in just his way of thinking. He was with Cosworth for 20-something years as their chief engineer and now we've brought him over to work with us (in engine development).

Q: Where did you exactly go while you were there?

Childress: It's the MIA (Motorsports Industry Association) show -- Motorsports International. It's a big display of equipment and parts, but the thing about that show that's different than anything in the United States is it's more engineering oriented.

Q: Did you bring anything back with you?

Childress: I can't tell that.

Q: Compared to 10 years ago, is it a fair comparison to say racing today is like sailing a cruise ship by computer versus doing it by looking at the stars and a compass?

Childress: That's a good analogy of it. I can remember coming to Daytona in 1995 or 1996 and we had one guy with one computer.

I walked over to our garage stall a while ago and we've got four engineers sitting around a box with computers everywhere. So that's where it's come from in the last 10 years.

The data that we pull off of these cars today is incredible. This kind of testing (at Daytona) is more pure data acquisition than testing somewhere else is, but the thing that NASCAR has done is they've kept this stuff out of the racing.

If we were able to put all this technology on the cars and to run it every week -- if we were open like F1 -- we couldn't afford to race. At least the little guy couldn't afford to race.

So that's one thing they've done right.

Q: So is all this technology good or bad for the sport?

Childress: It's just a change in times. One guy gets a little technology thing and the next guy has got to get one better, and then the next guy has got to get one better than that.

That's the reason we were (at the MIA show) -- trying to find something better than everybody else.