Veteran crew chief Rick Viers is quickly finding out that, while he's not the commander of an arsenal, having one at his disposal is a comforting feeling.

That's what he's experienced in the past month, since joining Roush Fenway Racing's Nationwide Series program. And he's responded with an influential six races.

Viers, who most recently worked with veteran drivers at Baker Curb Racing and JD Motorsports, has a completely different look with his No. 16 Roush Fenway Ford -- a pair of newcomers.

“

It was a struggle ... if you're out of this garage area, you're forgotten so easily.

”

-- RICKY VIERS

Viers has worked one race with Brian Ickler, who has seven career Nationwide Series starts and only 22 national series races total, and the other five with Colin Braun, who raced the past two seasons for owner Jack Roush in the Truck Series and has a total of 73 national series races -- 22 in Nationwide.

The result, at least short term, is one of mutual appreciation -- for Viers in knowing what it took for him to get back with a premier team, and for his teammates in knowing the depth of experience Viers, 46, brings to the table.

The bottom line is Braun's team has vaulted from being outside the guaranteed top-30 in owners' points to contending for a top-15 spot.

Winding road back to the top

Viers was part of the formation of Red Bull Racing, which had an incredibly rocky start in 2007 that resulted in Viers -- who has eight victories as a Nationwide Series crew chief with Richard Childress Racing -- being released as A.J. Allmendinger's crew chief in '08.

For a time, Viers' racing landscape was fairly bleak, until he hooked up with another hard-core racer with a fairly similar background, Johnny Davis. Davis, in fact, had given Viers his first job in racing, in 1982 when Davis was crew chief for former Cup rookie of the year James Hylton.

Viers kept a low profile at JD Motorsports -- where he signed to work Daytona's Speedweeks and stayed all season. Viers worked weekends at the tracks and wasn't even listed as the crew chief on Davis' No. 01 Chevrolet. But its driver, Mike Wallace, made no secret of what Viers' insight meant to the overachieving little team.

"I talked to a lot of people over the last eight or nine months," Viers said midway through the 2009 season. "I've known Johnny since 1982, when I was in college and working on the weekends then -- so I've come full circle.

"It was a struggle, not only for me, but there were a lot of people [looking for jobs]. I felt fortunate and blessed that Johnny, who is truly a racer and doesn't get the recognition he deserves -- he works his tail off at the shop and at the race track on a shoestring budget and does things that people can't do with big sponsors -- gave me the opportunity to be at the track on the weekends.

"I was at the track where I could be seen because without that you'd just be at home, watching it on TV, and no one's gonna remember you that way. This sport ain't like football or baseball -- people remember those athletes a lot easier, for some reason. But if you're out of this garage area, you're forgotten so easily."

But this season, logging eight top-10 finishes in 14 starts as crew chief for Greg Biffle on Baker Curb's No. 27 Fords, the duo threatened to win almost weekly. But the team's fortunes took a turn for the worse in mid June when a law went into effect prohibiting Red Man smokeless tobacco from continuing its sponsorship of the car.

"That was a great group," Viers said of Baker Curb. "I can't say enough for what [owner] Gary Baker and [team manager] Matt Crews and car chief John Reese did with a really strong group of special individuals, working on race cars."

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Colin Braun (16) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (6) each have five DNFs for crashes this season, but Braun has finished on the lead lap in his past seven races and Stenhouse in his past five.

The benefit of been there, done that

Former Roush Fenway crew chief Eddie Pardue had had success with veterans Biffle and Matt Kenseth at Roush Fenway, but when Braun, who scored his debut Truck Series win for RFR in 2009, struggled through the first three months of '10, changes were made.

Braun had only two top-20 finishes in the first eight races this season, with a best of 13th. He then was taken out of the car at Richmond and temporarily replaced by Kenseth, who promptly finished 10th. But since Viers took the helm of the 16, Braun has five finishes between 11th and 17th.

"It's been so good to have Ricky come over to this Con-Way Freight car," Braun said after just two weekends, before anyone really knew how effective they were going to be. "Certainly we've had an up-and-down kind of season, with a couple different crew chiefs already.

"So it was nice to get somebody that has a lot of experience and a lot of success already [this season] -- crew chiefing that 27 car and making it go pretty fast with Greg Biffle in there.

"It's really nice to have someone that comes with a lot of experience because [Viers] really knows what he's doing and he has those really good leadership skills and that confidence about him. To me it feels like somebody you can just believe in and get behind and it's the same for all of the crew members here ... and we all feel like this is the guy to change our luck, to change our season around and put us on the right path again."

“

His experience is a huge plus. Now I have teammates, obviously, that I can go to that have experience -- who have been there and done that -- but now we have a crew chief who's been there as well, so he brings a lot to the table here, and I'm thinking we're a good match.

”

-- BRIAN ICKLER

"It's good working with Rick -- I really like him," said Ickler, who's barely had a chance to establish a real relationship with any crew chief, as much as he's bounced around the garage trying to gain a foothold. "He's really calm, but we knew he was going to be good when he came over here from [Baker Curb].

"It's kind of a unique situation [at Daytona] because with speedway racing, you really adjust these cars kind of different. But I really liked the way we worked together and I can't wait till the next time, which I think is Bristol.

"His experience is a huge plus. Now I have teammates, obviously, that I can go to that have experience -- who have been there and done that -- but now we have a crew chief who's been there as well, so he brings a lot to the table here, and I'm thinking we're a good match."

Roush's young pair of Nationwide rookies, Braun and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who wheels the team's No. 6 Ford, created some consternation for Roush earlier this season as they tore up an inordinate amount of equipment.

That figuratively made Braun, particularly, almost wrap his arms around Viers when he arrived, and his feelings are similar to what Ickler expressed after one weekend.

"He was willing to really help and try to guide me and teach me and help me learn things along the way," Braun said of Viers. "Not only would he do the whole crew chief side of it, but he would tell me 'maybe you need to do this when you're driving.'

"Just the experience he's had working with younger people right up to guys like Greg Biffle -- he's able to take all that and give you some great ideas and advice and that's something I feel has been a big help to me."

Ickler got his first shot in a Roush Fenway car at Charlotte in May but didn't get his first top-10 -- ninth -- until he teamed with Viers at Daytona in July. And despite his youth, Ickler's sage enough to know the three young men, working together, can be an effective weapon.

"I think we can be effective, as a group, because we all kind of struggle with the same things in these [Nationwide] cars," Ickler said. "So working together we can all help each other and make each other go faster."

In the aftermath of Ickler's top-10 finish at Daytona, in the debut race for the Nationwide Series' new car and Viers' third race with the company, Roush Fenway speedway research and develop ace Mike Beam, Braun's former Truck crew chief, was all smiles -- particularly when you add Stenhouse's third-place run.

"It means a lot to us with [Viers'] experience in working with young drivers," Beam said. "With Rick's demeanor, he fits in and he's a good team player. Andy Petree [former champion crew chief and team owner] and a lot of other people talked about what a good team player [Viers] was and he fits into our corps of people very well.

"He brought some great ideas because he ran great with Biffle and [Baker Curb] on the mile-and-a-half stuff and so we looked at [Viers] for some stuff that could improve us there. So we're really excited about having him because he's a veteran crew chief.

"We made the mistake before of putting rookie crew chiefs with rookie drivers, but [pairing the veteran Viers with a pair of rookies] has worked out really well."

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Ricky Viers has three goals for Colin Braun: win rookie of the year, win a race and finish in the top 15 in owners' points.

Getting it done in short amount of time

There's no question that, from the brink of being shunted aside, which is always a danger of the very busy Roush Fenway development program, Braun -- on the strength of five consecutive consistently competitive runs -- is on the right track.

Viers, who's largely been the architect, certainly can smell the progress he's engineered as the season moves ahead.

"In the last six races we've moved from 23rd to 16th in owners' points and we're only 29 points out of 14th," Viers said. "So as a team we have one of our goals in sight, which was to break into the top 15 in owners' points [and] I think we have a very real chance at doing that this weekend in Iowa."

Given Viers' overall career goals, the decision to come to Roush Fenway was a given, but the performance justifies it.

"I'm very excited about the opportunity to be here, with an organization like this and a lot of good people," Viers said. "We've got a lot of resources here to pull from -- we're able to go to the Cup shop and use the 7 post, the K-rig and everything. So right now we're just trying to sort through some stuff."

A modest Nationwide shop in Mooresville, N.C., houses four complete teams.

"There are a lot of people in a little building," Viers said. But they get a lot of work done. There are a lot of racers there. I've only been there two weeks but I'm very impressed with the people and the management and how things are structured.

"They get so much done in that small area and I'm hoping I can bring some of the things that I've done in the past to the table and help actually do even a better job of scheduling and get even more production done and help make our race cars better."

It's been step by step and Viers is relishing the journey.

"I'm just trying to get oriented with all the information," Viers said "Pulling from my experience last year [with Davis] and earlier this year with the 27, it's given us the opportunity to get off to a good start."

And Viers, who says he'd like one more shot in the Cup Series as a crew chief, has cast aside any thoughts of low key. In only his second week at RFR, he said he met with Braun and said his three season goals were "to win rookie of the year, to win at least one race and to get into the top 15 in [owners'] points."