March 25th, 2011 
Journo Richard Childress Racing entered the 2011 season with some serious momentum. All three of the team’s drivers finished last season in the top-12 in points – Jeff Burton in 12th, Clint Bowyer in 10th and Kevin Harvick in third – and they had five wins in between them. After a disastrous 2009 season, it was a quick return to glory.
Then this season started. And what have we seen from RCR? Well, not much.
Clint Bowyer had a decent run at Daytona, leading 31 laps, but ended up finishing in 17th. Add to that finishes of 27th, 35th and a season best 15th and Bowyer sits 30th in the points. His teammate Jeff Burton isn’t much better off. He’s averaging a finish of 25.8 – he hasn’t had a finish above 20th – and he sits 24th in the points. And how about Kevin Harvick? He’s had bright spots at Phoenix and Bristol (4th and 6th) but sits 15th in the points thanks to 42nd and 17th place finishes.
Then there’s RCR newcomer Paul Menard. This is a guy who’s in his fifth (full) Cup Series season. Prior to this year he had just two top-fives and seven top-10s in 147 starts. His best points finish? 23rd last season.
This year? One top-five and two top-10s so far. He’s sitting 5th in the points. Who would have thought after four races it would be Paul Menard who was sitting at the head of the table at RCR? I certainly didn’t.
Last year Richard Petty Motorsports brought together Menard and crew chief Richard “Slugger” Labbe. Menard saw big improvements over the season and when the driver announced his move, Labbe and a good portion of their crew weren’t far behind. Those relationships are paying dividends this season.
As the obligatory caveat emptor I’ll say there’s a lot of season left, but so far Labbe and Menard look pretty darn good (not to mention Richard Childress). With teammates like Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer, Menard has a solid support system, not to mention some of the best equipment in the sport. All things considered, he’s definitely one to watch this year.
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Good for Menard, but I still can’t get over the fact that if it wasn’t for his dad cutting checks, he would have been kicked to the curb years ago. I know nepotism is the order of the day in NASCAR, but I hate seeing really talented drivers getting no real chance to succeed. Then you have guys like Menard and Steven Wallace who can spend years running bad and smashing equipment ’till they finally get it.
Craig, that’s the thing..Menard over his career is know for not smashing up his equipment..he’s just been driving bad equipment, now that he has good stuff he is showing what he can do. Go Paul!
I never thought Menard was that terrible a driver. Let’s see how he does in RCR equipment. His father’s backing is not the point of Journo’s piece.
I suppose it goes to show that ‘buying in’ can result in one very good driver. And I have to ask “why not” since this is the good ole USA and money is supposed to be able to buy things here. And face it, it buys an extended chance for any driver to develop and bringing in those bucks quite frankly is ultimately on the driver. So just because Paul may have had a more willing sponsor in his dad, he still had to come up with a way to bring in the bucks just like everybody else.
I understand the arguments about talented guys not getting a chance to develop due to money issues and the purist in me agrees. But I can’t go down the road of “spreading the wealth so everyone gets the same chances on the track”. In this country competition isn’t just on the track, it’s also in the garage and at the bank. Why would we want to spot a couple of extra seasons development to somebody who can’t cut it on the ‘bring in the bucks’ side of things any more than we would want to spot a couple of laps to someone who can’t cut it on the track side of things??
Bottom line is Menard found a way to cut it on the money side of things in convincing his dad to do it. Can’t fault him for that one bit and in fact he’s the smart one for realizing that bringing in the bucks from ‘where-ever’ has to be the top priority if he wants do do this stuff. Meanwhile a number of track-talented guys finding themselves without a ride are probably realizing they were way too focused on the fun part and basically didn’t do squat on the not so fun part of figuring out how to bring in the bucks from where-ever, somewhere, anywhere… Bottom line is being a good driver is just a license to prove you can bring in the bucks and this sport is about “on the track, in the garage, and at the bank”. Take away the ‘bring in the bucks’ part and we’ll all be watching a buch of guys racing riding lawnmowers or worse.
Thanks for bringing this story to light. I couldn’t agree more, both on the congrats as well as the caveat. I mean, lots of folks were rooting for Trevor Bayne too, right?
@Craig: It’s a fair point but then I think that there never would have been a Richard Petty without Lee Petty or even a Dale Earnhardt Sr. without Ralph Lee Earnhardt. Some say nepotism, some say legacy. It’s a tough call.
I’m still not sold on Menard yet. He did start off strong last year and fell down to mediocrity. If he is hanging around the top 10 going into the All-Star weekend, then I will give credit where credit is due.
As For Harvick, He has run a whole lot better than the to bad finishes. He was the strongest car at Daytona until he blew an engine (which for RCR is extremely rare), and at Vegas he was running in the top 10 all day until he had that Speeding penalty.
As for Burton and Bowyer, They have struggled there is no denying that. Burton has some of the worst luck in NASCAR the last few years.
I predict he will now steadily fade to the end of the field.
I’ve been one of the people who have not had a lot of faith in Paul Menard’s ability. It’s good to see him doing well and maybe proving some of us doubters wrong. I hope he continues to do well this season and justifies RCR giving him a ride.
He has shown some potential in the past, but has never been on the best team. This year, he is doing well and hopefully this will continue for him.