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Sprint Cup
CUP: Pit Crew Swap At RCR
Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer swap pit crews to help RCR’s championship hopes...
Kevin Harvick's pit crew will be working on Clint Bowyer's car for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series TUMS Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
With Kevin Harvick's team struggling on pit road this season, particularly during the Chase, Richard Childress Racing swapped the pit crews this week between the teams of Harvick and Clint Bowyer.
Most of Bowyer’s No. 33 crew, including the tire changers and tire carriers, will move to Harvick’s No. 29 team, beginning with this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway. The teams' respective crew chiefs were not a part of the swap.
Harvick is third in the Chase For The Sprint Cup standings, 77 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson. Bowyer is 12th, 300 points behind after suffering a 150-point penalty for an illegal car in the first Chase race.
Harvick has complained about his crew’s performance on pit road much of the season, and those concerns have intensified in recent weeks.
“Those issues have been addressed, and I believe everything will be fine this week,” Harvick said Friday at Martinsville. “[Team owner] Richard [Childress] made some huge changes this week.”
Bowyer said he agreed with the change since his team is out of championship contention. He informed his team of the move during a meeting at RCR on Tuesday.
“I think we owe it to everybody involved, all the employees, to bring that championship home,” Bowyer said. “I’m going to miss ‘em, but … I think we can win with his pit crew as well. They are certainly no slouch, what he had. And if he needed my crew to try to be better, I was going to give it to him.”
Bowyer, who won the first Chase at New Hampshire and finished second two weeks ago at California, said he might get his crew back this year if Harvick falls out of contention.
“If he is out of championship contention, I will get them back, but as long as he is in that thing and can win a championship for RCR, why not?” Bowyer said.
“I got my team together Tuesday morning and told them I thought we owed it to all the 400 employees at RCR, to do that. We owe it to them guys to bring a championship home.”
Teammate Jeff Burton, who is 239 point behind in 10th, said he and Harvick have both had problems on pit road all season.
“The 29 and the 31, we have not had good pit stops all year. It has been a weak point for both teams,” he said. “There has been a tremendous effort to address it and to get it working better.
“As we entered the Chase, there was a tremendous effort to take the next step again, and the results weren’t there. Richard indicated to us a couple of weeks ago that, as the Chase continued, and if we had one team that was still [in contention], there had to be something done about shoring that problem up, so it was really affecting us in a negative way.”
Burton, who had no changes to his crew, said he supported such a move – within reason and to a point.
“As a company guy, yes. We have to put three A team efforts together,” he said. “In a short-term scenario, when you have one team that has a shot, it’s OK. It’s not great, but it’s OK to take something from someone and give it to the other on a very, very temporary basis.
“If we ever position ourselves as a company of having an A, B, C team, we have major trouble. But if something like that goes down with our team or any team, it is kind of a sign that we have done everything else we know to do, this is all we’ve got. I don’t want to say it is a sign of weakness, but it is a sign that we have no choice, and that is not the position we want to be in.
“But, if [my team] isn’t in position to win the championship, we have to be willing to do the things – as long as they are ethical – to help the 29 [of Harvick] win the championship, which is the case that we appear to be in.”
SceneDaily.com • Red Bull officials ecstatic to get Kasey Kahne early; no decision yet on Scott Speed’s future with team
Most of Bowyer’s No. 33 crew, including the tire changers and tire carriers, will move to Harvick’s No. 29 team, beginning with this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway. The teams' respective crew chiefs were not a part of the swap.
Harvick is third in the Chase For The Sprint Cup standings, 77 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson. Bowyer is 12th, 300 points behind after suffering a 150-point penalty for an illegal car in the first Chase race.
Harvick has complained about his crew’s performance on pit road much of the season, and those concerns have intensified in recent weeks.
“Those issues have been addressed, and I believe everything will be fine this week,” Harvick said Friday at Martinsville. “[Team owner] Richard [Childress] made some huge changes this week.”
Bowyer said he agreed with the change since his team is out of championship contention. He informed his team of the move during a meeting at RCR on Tuesday.
“I think we owe it to everybody involved, all the employees, to bring that championship home,” Bowyer said. “I’m going to miss ‘em, but … I think we can win with his pit crew as well. They are certainly no slouch, what he had. And if he needed my crew to try to be better, I was going to give it to him.”
Bowyer, who won the first Chase at New Hampshire and finished second two weeks ago at California, said he might get his crew back this year if Harvick falls out of contention.
“If he is out of championship contention, I will get them back, but as long as he is in that thing and can win a championship for RCR, why not?” Bowyer said.
“I got my team together Tuesday morning and told them I thought we owed it to all the 400 employees at RCR, to do that. We owe it to them guys to bring a championship home.”
Teammate Jeff Burton, who is 239 point behind in 10th, said he and Harvick have both had problems on pit road all season.
“The 29 and the 31, we have not had good pit stops all year. It has been a weak point for both teams,” he said. “There has been a tremendous effort to address it and to get it working better.
“As we entered the Chase, there was a tremendous effort to take the next step again, and the results weren’t there. Richard indicated to us a couple of weeks ago that, as the Chase continued, and if we had one team that was still [in contention], there had to be something done about shoring that problem up, so it was really affecting us in a negative way.”
Burton, who had no changes to his crew, said he supported such a move – within reason and to a point.
“As a company guy, yes. We have to put three A team efforts together,” he said. “In a short-term scenario, when you have one team that has a shot, it’s OK. It’s not great, but it’s OK to take something from someone and give it to the other on a very, very temporary basis.
“If we ever position ourselves as a company of having an A, B, C team, we have major trouble. But if something like that goes down with our team or any team, it is kind of a sign that we have done everything else we know to do, this is all we’ve got. I don’t want to say it is a sign of weakness, but it is a sign that we have no choice, and that is not the position we want to be in.
“But, if [my team] isn’t in position to win the championship, we have to be willing to do the things – as long as they are ethical – to help the 29 [of Harvick] win the championship, which is the case that we appear to be in.”
SceneDaily.com • Red Bull officials ecstatic to get Kasey Kahne early; no decision yet on Scott Speed’s future with team
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