The Top 5 Worst Drivers in the History of Richard Childress Racing
The Top 5 Worst Drivers in the History of Richard
Childress Racing
An Article by Brian Cotnoir
I
have to give credit to owner Richard Childress, in a sport where you are expected
to perform well and challenge for wins and top 10’s every race, he is one of the
few owners who take time to develop his driver’s talent. He ran a herd of drivers through the Truck
and Xfinity series before giving them a chance in with his Cup team. Sometimes he got an immediate return like
with Kevin Harvick, and other times he had to wait a while for the payoff like
with Clint Bowyer, Austin Dillon, and Jeff Burton. Richard Childress is one of the—if not the
most loyal—owner in the NASCAR garage who has a history of giving drivers the first
and in many other cases their 2nd chance in NASCAR. With that being said he has also hired a few
drivers, who just didn’t pan out for him.
Again, I’m not saying that these are bad drivers; I’m just saying that
they were bad when they drove for Richard Childress.
#5) Mike Skinner
Mike Skinner won the 1st ever Craftsman
(now Gander Outdoors) Truck Series Race ever for owner Richard Childress in a
truck that mirrored Dale Earnhardt’s iconic GM Goodwrench paint scheme, and he
was the series’ first ever champion. He
was made teammate of Dale Earnhardt Sr.
He had legendary crew chief Larry McReynold’s calling shots for him on
his pit box and what did his NASCAR Cup career produce….not much. He won the Pole for the 1997 Daytona 500 and
Rookie of the Year, and he won a couple of Exhibition races in Japan, and had a
career best 10th place finish in the points in 1999. It wasn’t Skinner’s entire fault. He missed a number of races in multiple
seasons due to racing injuries (keep in mind, there were no SAFER Barriers when
he started in NASCAR, he was hitting solid concrete when he wrecked) and
secondly RCR was and always will be Dale Earnhardt’s team. The injuries took their toll on Skinner and
he was eventually replaced with Robby Gordon who had way more success in
comparison in the 31 car than Mike Skinner did.
#4) Paul Menard
Let’s be honest, Menard had this ride--and pretty
much every other ride in NASCAR--not because he was a great driver, but because
he had sponsorship. He was not a great
driver, but any stretch before he came to RCR and he only got this ride because
he had those sponsorship dollars. With
that being said, Menard finally became a decent and more consistent driver once
he started driving for Richard Childress.
He even got his first win with the team at the 2011 Brickyard 400. Still, he wasn’t that great of a driver at
RCR, but slowly each season, he becomes much better than the season before.
 |
| If you're going to have only won with a team, it might as well be a big one |
#3) Jeff Green
Through the tragic loss of Dale Earnhardt Sr. in
2001 RCR was in a mad scramble to fill seats.
Kevin Harvick replaced the late Dale Earnhardt and made huge splash in
the sport, Robby Gordon replaced the injured Mike Skinner, and won the season
finale at New Hampshire, but then Childress had one more seat left to
fill. Kevin Harvick was scheduled to
drive full-time for the team in 2002 with sponsorship from America-On-Line, but
now he was going to drive the GM Goodwrench Car, not wanting to disappoint sponsors,
Childress hired 2000 Busch Series Champion Jeff Green to drive the #30 AOL car,
and at the time this seemed like a no-brainer.
Green was one of the best drivers in Busch Series History and previously
drove for Dale Sr. in the Busch Series, so he seemed like the perfect fit for
RCR’s third car. His first season with
the team he scored four Top 5’s, but finished only 17th in the
points. In 2003, he wasn’t winning races
like his teammates Harvick and Gordon and was dropped midway through the season
by RCR and he went on to drive for DEI and Petty Enterprises for the rest of
the season.
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| Jeff Green's Career went down like the Popularity of his sponsor |
#2) Casey Mears
Casey Mears has to have one of the strangest
careers in NASCAR. He has driven for 3
of the Top Teams in Series History, and always managed to find a full-time ride
no matter what team he drove for. Yet at
RCR, he had very little success. In one
season with the team, Mears finished 21st in the points in the Jack
Daniels #07 Chevy, and ran mid-pack every race, and occasionally managed to
finish in the Top ten
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| Maybe it was the Car? |
#1) Dave Blaney
It pains me to put Dave Blaney on here, he’s a dirt
track legend, and probably one of the most popular drivers to never win a Cup
Race, but yeah he was probably the worst driver Richard Childress ever hired to
drive one of his Cup cars. In just one
season with the team in 2005, he struggled to finish inside the Top 30, and
only managed two Top 10’s the entire season. Blaney wasn’t the only one who had
a dismal season for the team as all three of Childress drivers missed the Chase
for the Cup that season, and the team only had one win in the Cup Season. This could be a place of driving for the right
team at the wrong time—and it was only for the one season—but for these reasons
alone, it’s enough for me to declare Dave Blaney the worst Cup Series driver in
the History of Richard Childress Racing.
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| Dont worry, Dave. You're still not a failure in racing, you just had a bad season with the team |
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