Harvick, Mears To Swap Crews, Chiefs

Richard Childress Racing will swap the crews and chiefs of Kevin Harvick and the no. 29 and Casey Mears and the No. 07 in an effort to improve performance.

The switch is expected to be made after this weekend’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Todd Berrier will move from the No. 29, where he served as Harvick’s crew chief for five years, to Mears and the No. 07.

Gil Martin will move to Harvick’s team. Martin was the crew chief for Clint Bowyer where he made two consecutive Chase appearances.

One of the reasons Mears never performed up to expectations at Hendrick Motorsports was that he never established a relationship with a crew chief because they were bounced around to and from his team.

I hope that’s not happening at RCR. I hope he gets in a season or two with Berrier to see what this kid actually has got.

Labonte To Get New Crew Chief

Yates Racing is also giving Hall Of Fame Racing driver Bobby Labonte a new crew cheif.

Ben Leslie, former crew cheif of Yates’ No. 28 and driver Travis Kvapil, is moving over to the team.

The No. 28 team was performing pretty well, before having to close its doors due to lack of sponsorship.

Current crew cheif Todd Parrott will move to another role within the organization, working with all Yates teams.

Labonte said:

I’m looking forward to working with Ben. He’s done a lot with Ford Racing specifically and I like that he has experience with many Champion drivers. I’m excited to see what we will do together on the track in the next few weeks.

Also, a crew cheif swap was discussed at Hendrick Motorsports.

I guess spring is the season of change.

Car and Driver NASCAR Hoax, Why So Many Were Duped

Continuing the fallout surrounding Car and Driver’s April Fool’s hoax, Ann Coutler, apparently fell for it.

In her column dated yesterday, she wrote:

If Obama can tell GM and Chrysler that their participation in NASCAR is an “unnecessary expenditure,” isn’t having public schools force students to follow Muslim rituals, recite Islamic prayers and plan “jihads” also an “unnecessary expenditure”? Are all those school condom purchases considered “necessary expenditures”?

Upon further reading about this story, it looks like Car and Driver didn’t originally label the article a joke.

Media Matters for America features a Live Search cache snapshot of the article, which does not include the later-added Happy April Fools text under the headline.

Knowing that, it’s no wonder so many people are up in arms about the article, and were so easily duped.

I apologize for being under the impression that the article was clearly marked all along. This explains why C&D said they went “too far,” and pulled the article.

C&D is a reputable magazine, and most people would take their reporting at face value. I know I would. And other than the computer-generated image of Richard Childress Racing’s No. 3 Chevy, driven by the late Dale Earnhardt Sr, there was no indication that something was fishy with this article.

I point to the image because it is not authentic in that the supposed Chevy is supporting a Mercedes Benz-like grill, not the Chevy front with the bowtie. But is that really enough to know the article is fake? No.

Regardless of whether or not I think that article was in poor taste, it is certainly understandable to take it at face value.

And, in this case, C&D used its reputation to trick people, and for that they should be sorry. 

Several media outlets are still covering this story. They are: ESPN, Newsday, Investor’s Business Daily, and CNBC, just to name a few.

Harvick Did Not Lose Engine Before Crashing

Upon further review, it appears that Richard Childress Racing driver Kevin Harvick didn’t blow an engine, as originally reported.

Instead, he suffered from a punctured oil filter. Once replaced, the car fired, but the damage sustained from his contact with the wall prevented the team from returning to the Auto Club 500 from Auto Club Speedway.

Harvick’s inability to return to the race also ended his streak of consecutive races without a DNF. He was reportedly three short of the record.

Companies With NASCAR Ties Eliminating Jobs

Four companies with ties to NASCAR, Sprint Nextel, General Motors, Caterpillar, and Home Depot all announced that they are cutting jobs in light of current economic conditions.

Sprint Nextel, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series sponsor, announced that it will be cutting about 15% of its workforce, or 8,000 employees. This move is expected to save the company $1.2 billion annually. Sprint has been losing customers to larger rivals AT&T and Verizon.

GM announced that it is eliminating about 2,000 jobs, as well as decreasing production at plants in the U.S. and Canada. Most of the cuts will affect plants in Michigan and Ohio.

Following a 32 percent drop in profits, Caterpillar, sponsor of Richard childress Racing’s No. 31 Chevy, driven by Jeff Burton, announced that it is cutting 20,000 jobs, or about 18% of its workforce. That includes 12,000 employees and 8,000 contractors. Caterpillar is also cutting production schedules and costs in light of the economic turmoil.

Home Depot, sponsor of Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Toyota, and driver Joey Logano, announced that it will be cutting 7,000 jobs, or two percent of its workforce. It will also close nearly 50 stores.

BB&T To Sponsor RCR’s No. 33 Next Season

BB&T, Richard Childress Racing’s sponsor of the No. 2 Nationwide entry has signed on to sponsor RCR’s No. 33 Sprint Cup entry driver by Clint Bowyer next season for 10 races and the All Star race.

BB&T’s CMO Steve Wiggs said:

Richard Childress Racing and Clint Bowyer have been great partners, and we have been working on opportunities to become more involved with the RCR Sprint Cup program, which is second to none. The success of our program, the positive support from our employees and clients, and the on-track success of Clint Bowyer made our decision to become the major associate sponsor of the No. 33 team relatively easy. We have increased our involvement each of the past two years, and our 2009 program is a natural progression from our successful 2008 season in the Nationwide Series.