Childress: Violations by Joe Gibbs Racing Nationwide team were blatant
BROOKLYN, Mich. – Richard Childress didn't want to talk about his driver lineup for 2009 Sunday morning, but he was adamant in talking about what happened following the previous day's Nationwide Series race.
As far as whether Casey Mears has signed a deal to drive for Richard Childress Racing next season with Jack Daniel’s moving over as his sponsor and General Mills paired with current RCR driver Clint Bowyer, Childress didn’t say much.
“Any comments I have got to make, I’ll make them next week,” said Childress, who is expected to make that announcement next Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
As far as seeing Joe Gibbs Racing’s Nationwide Series team get caught interfering with the inspection process by manipulating the throttle on the chassis dynamometer, Childress was a little more vocal, saying whoever was responsible should be kicked out of the garage.
“I’ll say it’s damn blatant,” Childress said. “I’m surprised they got caught. When people get an advantage, they don’t want to give it up and sometimes they go to extremes to keep from giving up an advantage, and that’s just what they did.”
Bowyer currently leads the Nationwide Series driver standings by 113 points over Carl Edwards but his No. 2 RCR team is 318 points behind the No. 20 JGR team in the owner standings.
NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton indicated that penalties will be levied this week.
Childress said even with a penalty to the No. 20 team, his team needs to improve to contend for the owners title.
“We’ve got to get our act a little better together,” Childress said. “If we're running second every week, I could be hollering. Right now, we’ve had some good runs and wins, but we’ve got room for improvement.”
