Clint Bowyer: crew-chief change not performance based

By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Richard Childress Racing's Clint Bowyer will have a new crew chief next season.

Jason Smith
Getty Images for NASCAR

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HAMPTON, Ga. – It’s not every day that a Chase For The Sprint Cup driver sticks with the same team and has his crew chief changed, but that’s what will happen next year with Clint Bowyer.

It was announced earlier this week that Gil Martin and the No. 07 team would work with Casey Mears and current No. 07 driver Clint Bowyer will work with new Cup crew chief Shane Wilson and his new Cup crew.

“We’ve had a lot of success together and a lot of fun,” Bowyer said Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “I love Gil. He’s my kind of people. … He’s not going to be too far away. We’ll be able to lean on each other if needed.”

Bowyer has made the Chase the last two years with two victories, but Richard Childress Racing Vice President of Competition Mike Dillon said the switch was primarily because of sponsorship. Bowyer is moving to the General Mills-sponsored car while Mears steps in the Jack Daniel’s-sponsored car.

“It’s not anything performance-related into why we’re split up,” Bowyer said. “It’s strictly moving forward trying to better our organization. [Team owner] Richard [Childress] came to us and said this is what we’re going to do and we have to make the best out of the situation.

“I feel like we’ve all got to stick together. When you look at the teams we’re getting beat by, it’s all four-car teams. We knew that we had to step up, bring in more income and that’s going to bring in more engineers and R&D.”

But if Bowyer had won more than once this year and challenged for the title, would the change have been made?

“We still would have because it was part of the sponsorship thing,” Dillon said. “They [did have] a little slump during the year and it’s nothing personal there. … You know how it is, the chemistry has to stay good and smooth.”

The Bowyer and Mears teams will work out of the same area of the shop.

“You need so much money to run in this sport, you couldn’t turn your back to Jack Daniel’s,” Martin said. “They’ve been too good of a sponsor. We’ve given them the same team they’ve been accustomed to because it’s the right thing to do.

“General Mills got what they wanted. It was a win-win for everybody.”

While it was not his decision for the change to be made, Bowyer said he was involved in the selection of Wilson. Wilson, a former Cup crew chief at Penske Racing and also the winner of a Nationwide Series title with Kevin Harvick, has the organization and knowledge to do the job, Bowyer said.

“Of all the crew chiefs we talked to, he’s the one that made the most sense and had the best game plan and the one I felt like would do the best job for us,” Bowyer said. “You don’t want somebody that you don’t want in there. I sat down and met with several crew chiefs and made the best decision I thought for our organization and myself – to use somebody that we already had.

“Shane is definitely qualified.”

Martin said he expects his team to remain focused on Bowyer while also beginning to work with Mears. Martin will test with Mears next week at Nashville Superspeedway.

“Everybody on this team has handled it like professionals like I knew that everybody would,” Martin said. “We fitted a seat to a car and we’re going to Nashville to test [with Mears] next week and we’re going to start testing already so we start getting some feedback, and just making sure we’ve got all the driver comfort straightened out before all the major testing starts.”

RCR obviously hopes the switch helps everyone involved. No other crew chief changes have been announced for next year for any of the drivers currently in the Chase, with the exception of Tony Stewart because he is leaving Joe Gibbs Racing.

“I’ve seen Roush [Fenway Racing] make those changes for reasons and there are other reasons beyond [performance],” Dillon said. “You’ve got to feel confident enough as a company that the cars will maintain the performance level. It’s more big picture than just one team.”

Bowyer agreed.

“Bringing a fourth team in, moving me over to the 33 car, in the long haul that’s going to be better for me,” Bowyer said. “It’s going to bring more [information] in, more resources, [and] when we go test, another car that we can pull information from.”