News
Email
Print
OFF TRACK: Childress battles a downturn
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: October 18, 2009
CONCORD -- Richard Childress tugged on the front of his jacket, bracing for the biting breeze that whipped across the track.
The wind ruffled his hair, dried his lips and rubbed nature's rouge deeper into his cheeks. The owner smiled less than usual, because the company's drab 2009 season leaves him little to smile about.
For two straight years, the recovering Childress shop put three drivers in NASCAR's chase for the championship, feeding expectations that good news would get better. It didn't.
As crews pushed cars toward the starting line for the 500-miler last night, four Childress drivers had led 188 of the season's 8,553 laps, without victory. Jimmie Johnson led 569 laps at Dover alone, winning both races.
"We don't know what happened yet," Childress said. "All of a sudden, we fell off the wagon. We'll get back on it, though, I promise you."
His hopes for an instant resurgence rose around 11 p.m., but Clint Bowyer couldn't catch Jimmie Johnson and finished sixth.
The comeback wagon rolled on in the 1980s and 1990s, driven by Dale Earnhardt and fueled by the Childress team's competitive hunger. Earnhardt won six of his seven championships driving the No. 3 Chevy, but things hardly clicked at first.
Childress remembers 1985, when Earnhardt won four times but failed to finish nine races.
"Horrible," Childress said.
"We sat outside my house in Winston. I said: ‘Dale, you're a better driver than this. You need to go somewhere else and drive.' We had blown 12 engines or something. He said: ‘We started this together and we're going to finish together.' "
They won titles the next two seasons. In the 1990s, after another dip, Earnhardt blurted: "It has just got to be me."
Childress disagreed. "Dale, it's not you. We don't have you the equipment you need."
Getting better
The team improved, finishing second in the 2000 points race, but never won another title before Earnhardt's fatal Daytona crash in 2001.
Childress ushered Kevin Harvick into Earnhardt's ride, and Harvick won twice the first year. The relationship hit bumps along the way, but five victories in 2006 amounted to a new dawn. The dawn now looks like sunset, based on Harvick's televised comments last Sunday. Harvick, winless the past two years in the Shell Chevy, said he will fulfill the last year of his contract in 2010.
"After that, maybe it's time to turn the page and start a new chapter for everybody," Harvick said.
The four Childress drivers entered this race ranked 15th (Bowyer), 18th (Jeff Burton), 19th (Casey Mears) and 21st (Harvick).
Burton, whose crew chief will become RCR's competition director, observed the July upheaval from close range as Childress swapped the Harvick and Mears crew chiefs.
"It is a stressful situation for (Harvick) and Richard to deal with and for (Harvick) and his team to deal with," Burton said. "There's no question about it. At the same time, I think the hard part is over with. I think going through what was gone through last summer and all that makes now easier, if that makes sense. Sometimes you are just better off going to the dentist and getting it over with."
Garage veterans predict that Harvick will wind up with buddy Tony Stewart. Childress makes few predictions.
"Kevin's going be with us next year," Childress said. "Shell's going to be with us. We'll just see how everything plays out in the future. I didn't see his interview. I've heard some comments on it, but whatever happens, happens."
In a weak economy, the owner is trying to put moves on potential sponsors for Mears' 07 car because Jack Daniel's decided to leave the circuit. Childress probably will announce further organizational changes this week.
The company, now 40 years old, will stage a fan-appreciation event at the Welcome complex on Thursday.
The owner and the company are inseparable, in good times and bad.
"It's personal," Childress said. "You strain yourself and worry yourself, trying to figure out what it's going to take to get things where you want it."
On some gray days, he takes it without many smiles.
Email
Print
