https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN-Hystx-Vw
Last NASCAR season was a tough one for Richard Childress Racing and for Chevrolet in general.
Sure, RCR ended its 127-race winless streak when Ryan Newman grabbed the victory at Phoenix and Austin Dillon added another win at the Coca Cola 600, but neither driver made noise in the playoffs as both racers finished outside of the top-10 in the final point standings. In fact, Chevrolet drivers failed to win a playoff race in the Cup Series for the first time ever this year.
The bowtie brand is expected to receive a boost in 2018 with the introduction of the new Camaro ZL1 race car, but RCR decided it needed additional help to raise the performance of its teams. That's why team owner Richard Childress hired Andy Petree a couple months ago in an advisory role to evaluate all areas of his race teams.
Childress must have liked Petree's work because RCR announced today the 59-year-old Petree will be RCR's new Vice President of Competition. This move is effective immediately and coincides with Dr. Eric Warren's new role as Chief Technology Officer. Petree previously worked for RCR as a crew chief from 1993 to 1995, winning two Cup Series championships with Dale Earnhardt Sr.
"These organizational moves will strengthen our competition department tremendously," Childress said, according to Kickin' The Tires. "We felt that Andy did an exceptional job in the past month during his review of our competition area. Bringing him on as a Vice President of Competition is a valuable addition to our leadership team.
"I've known Andy for a long time and we're thrilled to have him work alongside our team, including Eric in his new role as Chief Technology Officer. This move will allow Eric to use his years of experience and many technical talents to focus on engineering and the application of emerging technologies."