Following the finish at Dover, Richard Childress was on the radio talking to his team and Denny Hamlin has thoughts as a team owner. RC let his drivers, Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch, know that things aren’t up to standard. But is it too late in the NASCAR season?
P11 for Kyle Busch and P15 for Austin Dillon. Honestly, Dover should have been a chance to land a pair of top-10 finishes. Things did not play out that way as both the 3 and 8 cars fell off the pace late in the race and were bleeding spots going to the finish line.
On Actions Detrimental, Denny Hamlin talked about the radio comments from Richard Childress. The RCR team owner said they need to “get some racecars.” They need to get some dang speed.
“He’s not in charge of engineering them,” Hamlin said, defending Childress to his co-host. “I think he’s challenging his employees to come up with some different answers. He knows the parts and pieces are the same, but they’re obviously, what I believe he’s saying is that we’ve got to put them together better.”
So, what is the problem at RCR? Is it the cars, the setup, the engines, the crew chiefs? At this point, it feels like it could be anything.
“Well, it could be simulation, it could be tons of things. Maybe they’re getting different answers in the tire department than what others are,” Denny Hamlin continued. “I don’t know. I’m not close enough to the situation to really know, but I’m here speculating that he’s challenging everyone to, you know, we can’t come back with the same thing. This is not working. We’re not fast enough. We need better cars. We need to give our drivers a better opportunity to win races.”
As a driver and team owner, Hamlin appreciated Childress’ honesty on the radio. He called his team out in a way.
“I can tell you this, as a driver, though, you like that,” Hamlin added. “I would like that. If I know that I’m going to a gun fight with a knife, it’s like, I want my owner to have my back, saying, it ain’t our drivers.”
If there is any negative from this, it could be RCR employees recoiling from the challenge rather than embracing it. Then again, at that point, Childress would know who he needs to keep and who needs to go.
“I guess the negative could be is that you know, now you’re going to put spotlights on all those people that are making those decisions, and they could feel pressure from that,” Denny Hamlin went on. “You know, if you can’t stand the pressure, get out of the kitchen. I just think the positives outweigh it. I think when you say that, you’re having the drivers’ back. You’re letting them know that you’re not happy with what you’re bringing for them to compete in. And yet maybe there needs to be a discussion publicly. Sometimes that works best.”
