Change in attitude makes RCR formidable again

Change in attitude makes RCR formidable again

Organization has chance at first title since Earnhardt won in 1994

By David Newton, NASCAR.COM
September 15, 2006
01:14 PM EDT (17:14 GMT)

WELCOME, N.C. -- Danny "Chocolate" Myers slid behind the counter at the front desk of Richard Childress Racing on Monday and offered the receptionist a stick of gum.

"Ouch!" she shouted.

"Gotcha!" Myers said with a laugh.

Myers was having a little fun with a magic store package of gum designed to shock the recipient that tries to remove a stick.

But he wasn't the only person in the 86,000-square-foot headquarters of RCR's Nextel Cup program enjoying this sun-splashed day. Everyone, from the man mowing the grass to the top engineer, had an extra bounce in their step.

And with good reason.

For the first time since NASCAR went to the Chase for the Nextel Cup format in 2004 the organization that produced six championships with Dale Earnhardt will be represented in the 10-race playoff that begins Sunday at New Hampshire International Speedway.

And not by just one driver, but two in Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton.

It's like a huge burden has been lifted off the backs of the employees in this 13-building complex hidden behind the railroad tracks off Old Highway 52.

"Anybody that says making the Chase doesn't matter, they're lying to themselves," said Myers, who has been with RCR since 1983. "It's kind of like saying the Daytona 500 is just another race."

It matters especially to an organization that exemplified the term excellence from 1986-1994, when Earnhardt won six of his seven titles and collected 39 of his 76 career victories to put the town of Welcome on the map.

"Everybody is stepping a little higher," said Chris Hussey, the director of engineering. "We have tons and tons of meetings on Mondays, and there was a lot more smiling and a lot more handshaking, quite a few more compliments being passed around than this time the past few years.

"You look forward to going to work now. You look forward to going to tests. You look forward to everything about the place right now."

It wasn't that way a year ago.

Nerves were frayed knowing the organization and sponsors again would not be represented in the Chase or the season-ending banquet in New York City where the top-10 teams are recognized.

Monday morning competition meetings with the crew chiefs and drivers often were as combative as they were productive.

"I've left competition meetings before with everybody looking at me like I was the biggest butt in the whole entire world because they didn't like what I had to say," said Harvick, who stormed into the Chase with his third victory of the season Saturday night at Richmond.

In the end, Harvick and others got their message across. Childress made wholesale changes in every aspect of the company.

He finally enjoyed the fruit of his labor at Richmond, where Harvick clinched the third seed in the playoff and Burton finished the race ninth to lock down eighth place in the Chase.

"Everybody is more proud of where they work today than they were this time a year ago," shop manager Royce McGee said. "They enjoy working here without the stigma of, 'We're not competitors. We're not contenders anymore.'

"That can wear on you after a while."

It particularly wore on the few left of the Earnhardt regime who weren't used to failure.

"We were always on the inside looking out before the past couple of years," Myers said. "The last two years we were on the outside looking in. That's not a good feeling."


The Earnhardt effect

On the wall in front of Bobby Hutchens' desk is a picture of Earnhardt with a trophy holding up four fingers to acknowledge his fourth Cup title.

RCR's vice president for competition can only imagine what Earnhardt would have felt about the organization the past two years.

"Embarrassment," Hutchens said. "He would have been pretty embarrassed about us not making the Chase. It was an embarrassment for all of us."

The picture is a reminder to Hutchens of what RCR is all about. It's also a reminder of the role Earnhardt's death on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 played on the downfall of the company.

Earnhardt finished every season but 1992 in the top 10 in points from 1986 until his death. He was second in 2000 with 24 top-10 finishes.

His replacement, Harvick, finished 14th or worse in three of the past four seasons.

"I'm not going to sit here and say that at some point in time that [his death] didn't play a part in our troubles," Hutchens said. "We went through 2001 on adrenalin. We had a great year, even after Dale passed away.

"But we fizzled off the last two months of the season. We all ran out of gas. I don't even remember 2002, that's how bad it was."

Harvick finished 21st in points in 2002, collecting almost as many DNFs (six) as he did top-10s (eight). Things were so bad that Childress wasn't sure he wanted to remain in the business.

"I was burnt out after 2001," he said.

Ronnie Hoover, who manages the fabrication shop, said it was obvious when he arrived two years ago that Earnhardt's death took the organization down a few notches.

"My perception was I thought Earnhardt was such a talented person that he made up for a lot of weaknesses in the organization that they didn't realize they were weak in," he said. "They ran so well most of the time that they didn't think they were broke.

"By the time they started getting beat, the next thing they know they were behind."

Hutchens said the low point came in the middle of the 2003 season when he tried to hire talent to turn things around.

"There was a time in there when the best of the best would call us," he said. "Then we got to a point where we didn't get those calls and we had to seek out those people, and we were having trouble hiring them.

"You understood. We weren't competitive like we wanted to be. We weren't running up front."

The organization had only one win the past two seasons and only four since 2003, with two of those coming from former driver Robby Gordon on road courses.

"I'll be honest with you," said Harvick, who had the other two wins. "I would have fired my butt three or four years ago. But you know, Richard is the type of person that gives you a chance and let's you explore the world and try to realize who you are."

Childress also got more involved, putting aside his grief from Earnhardt's death and looking toward the future. He realized these were different times and that he couldn't survive on one man's talent as he had.

He spent the money to move out of the cramped No. 3 shop that now serves as his museum and build the new multi-million-dollar complex that includes a new Cup and engine shop.

He separated the research and development department from the engine shop and hired new people with fresh ideas, leaving only a handful of employees remaining from the Earnhardt regime.

He came up with a plan and stuck to it.

"He's excited to be at the racetrack," Harvick said. "He's at the shop too many hours during the day. He drives himself crazy over every situation, but I mean, that's what it takes."

Hutchens, glancing at Earnhardt's picture, agreed.

"I see him as pumped up today as in 1988 when I came here," he said of Childress. "He's leading the charge."


"The people who get on in the world are the people who get up and look for the circumstance they want. And if they can't find them they make them.''

These are the words of playwright George Bernard Shaw. They are on a poster behind Hoover's desk in the fabrication shop explaining Shaw's interpretation of the word "Attitude."

"That's what's happened here," Hoover said. "You've got to make things happen to change. You determine your own destiny. You make your own luck. No excuses."

Burton has had a big impact on attitude. He's led the way Earnhardt once did, quietly putting together one of his best seasons in the process.

"I knew that we needed that for our organization," said Childress, who hired Burton from Roush Racing with 14 races left in the 2004 season. "Kevin had been around for five years or so and the other drivers I had had in the car didn't have that ability.

"Jeff had the experience. He won a lot of races. He's a leader. He's a great spokesman for anyone."

Childress also credits Harvick for keeping on the pressure to make changes, particularly in the engine department.

"I may not know how to express it the correct way, but I think they all heard where I was coming from and it wasn't just me," Harvick said. "You know, at some point you have to stop and re-evaluate everything that's going on.

"Nobody was pointing fingers and everybody just stopped and Richard said, 'Here is what we're going to do. We're going to come up with a new plan.'"


Finding a direction

Nine shiny orange No. 29 (Harvick) cars are in line beside nine shiny No. 31 (Burton) cars beside nine shiny black No. 07 (Clint Bowyer) cars in the middle of the Cup shop.

"There was a time last year when we had more cars in the fab shop being repaired than we have out here now," McGee said.

The plan that began midway through last season was to tear down the old cars and build new ones all equal. The goal was to make sure no team went to the track with one car better than the other as happened often in the past.

"There ain't no saving old cars anymore," McGee said as he surveyed the fleet. "The worst one of ours we cut it up and made it better, so if we do tear a car up the crew chief and the driver is not thinking, 'Oh, we can't win in this car.'"

The engines undergo the same scrutiny as the bodies. A commitment was made to build each one within four horsepower of the other, whereas some left the shop last year with a 10 horsepower differential.

Rick Mann, the engine shop manager, said finding a direction and sticking to it has been key. That and separating the engine shop from the R&D shop.

"We were working almost on top of each other, getting engines done at the last minute," he said. "We got to the point where we felt we were far enough off that it was almost a panic situation. It was almost like we were trying to re-invent the wheel.

"You're sitting there thinking you're doing everything you can to move the thing forward and not getting anywhere. It's almost like you're drowning."

Now engines are being built and delivered ahead of schedule. Panic has turned into order. Crazy work hours to make up for lost time have been replaced by standard 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. days.

The reward was two cars in the Chase and Bowyer (16th) with a shot at finishing as high as RCR's best driver the past two seasons, when Harvick was 14th.

"That feels great," Mann said. "The past couple of years it was, 'Well, if we'd done this or that we might have made it.' You always second-guessed yourself."


Return to excellence

Beside the front door to the Cup shop is a bronze eagle holding a checkered flag with a No. 3 in the upper left corner and the words "RCR celebrating decades of success" engraved below.

Not far away in a glass case are Childress' six championship owner trophies.

Everything about the building exudes success, which made the past two seasons particularly painful when the Chase began.

"This place has tons of history," Hussey said. "Just making this Chase is obviously not good enough for this place. This place is accustomed to winning championships.

"There's a lot of guys that have been here 12 and 20 years. Those are the ones that are most enjoyable to watch right now. They're the ones that struggled the hardest the last few years."

RCR is a contender because the company turned the negativity of not making the Chase into a positive, using the final 10 races of last season to get ready for this season.

"We felt like we were two months ahead of the curve going to testing at Las Vegas, and we came out of the box strong at Daytona," McGee said.

Hutchens fed off the negativity, watching the banquet on television as "punishment" to further motivate him.

"The top dogs are there and receiving awards and talking about what a good season they had," he said. "Just to not be considered in that group, that was tough."

Now there is a renewed sense of pride in the complex. There is a feeling of accomplishment instead of a feeling of disappointment.

"We as a company want to get recognized as winners and contenders," McGee said. "Robert Yates said it two weeks ago that he didn't want people ashamed to work in his facility.

"There was a time you kind of felt that way here two or three years ago. These guys in here have busted their butt to get us back. They're now proud to say, 'Hey, we work at RCR.'"