Following a disappointing finish at Dover, Richard Childress Racing owner Richard Childress voiced his frustration over the team radio, prompting analysis from fellow team owner and driver Denny Hamlin.
RCR drivers Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon finished 11th and 15th, respectively, at a track where top-10 results were expected. Both the No. 8 and No. 3 cars lost significant ground in the final laps, leading Childress to tell his team they needed to “get some racecars” and find more speed.
Speaking on his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin interpreted Childress’s public remarks not as an indictment of the drivers, but as a challenge to the entire organization.
“He’s not in charge of engineering them,” Hamlin explained. “I think he’s challenging his employees to come up with some different answers. He knows the parts and pieces are the same, but… what I believe he’s saying is that we’ve got to put them together better.”
Hamlin speculated that RCR’s performance issues could stem from a variety of sources, including vehicle setup, simulation models, or tire data interpretation. He viewed Childress’s candidness as a necessary move to signal that the current approach is failing.
“We can’t come back with the same thing. This is not working,” Hamlin said, summarizing the message. “We’re not fast enough. We need to give our drivers a better opportunity to win races.”
From a driver’s perspective, Hamlin endorsed the public show of support. “I would like that,” he stated. “If I know that I’m going to a gun fight with a knife, I want my owner to have my back, saying, ‘It ain’t our drivers.'”
While acknowledging that such public criticism could put pressure on employees, Hamlin concluded that the benefits outweigh the risks in the high-stakes environment of NASCAR. He suggested that sometimes a public discussion is the most effective way to spark change, and that Childress was ultimately demonstrating his commitment to his drivers and holding the team accountable for its performance.
