Richert looks for top-35 team after 'amicable' TRB parting
By Kris Johnson
Saturday, October 27, 2007
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HAMPTON, Ga. - Doug Richert is no longer crew chief of Team Red Bull's No. 83 Toyota for Brian Vickers, but you might not have known that walking through the garage area Friday afternoon at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Laughing with his former colleagues in front of the No. 83 garage stall, Richert was seen shaking many hands after what Team Red Bull Vice President of Competition Guenther Steiner called an "amicable" parting of the ways.
"I'm very thankful for what Doug Richert did for us. Starting from nothing is difficult, he was used to [being with] good teams. He helped us a lot to get where we are," Steiner said earlier today, adding of the split, "Going into the future, we had different philosophies about doing the job so he agreed to part company... I think we are very technically-based and Doug sometimes wants to go his way. We didn't disagree [on that], we just said, 'Hey, we're not fitting well together.'"
Richert, who will be replaced on an interim basis by TRB Research & Development Manager Randy Cox, shared those sentiments.
"This is a competitive sport, and when you're not competitive, you gotta look - and if they felt like it wasn't going in the right direction, I'm okay with that," he said. "When we were in the race, I felt like we had good race cars. Obviously, our qualifying effort has just been poor. That was our downfall. We just missed too many races."
Vickers has qualified for 19 of 32 races and missed the past two events at Martinsville and Charlotte, respectively. Vickers finished fifth at Charlotte in the spring, something that made his recent DNQ there even harder for Richert to stomach.
"That ripped my guts out at Charlotte, with the race that we had there the first race, that was hard to swallow. That was hard on me," he said. Missing races can also breed internal doubts, Richert noted.
"Brian wasn't confident in the situation. That's a strain on the relationship, too. If there's a little bit of doubt, or a little bit of miscommunication there, it'll send you down the path to divorce," he said.
Vickers explained the breakup this way.
"Personally, I get along great with Doug," he said. "... His approach and the way the team's direction wanted to be were a little bit different."
Steiner said Cox will return to his R&D role in 2008. Cox, who previously served as crew chief in the Busch Series with Kenny Wallace and David Stremme, is slated to fill in for the final four races while the team searches for a permanent replacement.
"We are talking with a few people but haven't made a decision yet," Steiner said. "I don't think we'll make a decision before the end of November."
As for Richert, he was upbeat about his prospects for 2008, saying he has already talked to a "few people" with a "couple more meetings" planned over the race weekend at AMS.
"You can hit everybody on the whole racing circuit right here in the garage area in 200 yards," he added with a laugh.
One thing is sure, though, in terms of his new team for 2008, whichever one that happens to be.
"If I land somewhere, I'm definitely looking at the points. It will be in the top 35," Richert said.
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Brian Vickers
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