Richard Childress voiced some frustration on Sunday afternoon after watching his two Cup Series teams struggle to contend at Dover Motor Speedway. He said that Richard Childress Racing needs to "get some d*** race cars."
The championship-winning team owner made these comments over the No. 3 radio on Sunday after Austin Dillon used a pit stop gamble to turn a lackluster day into a 15th-place finish. Dillon had run long during the final set of green flag pit stops, which helped him gain crucial track position after a late caution.
Dillon ultimately fell from inside the top 10 to 15th, but he still ended the day in a better position than he would have if he and the No. 3 team headed down pit road with everyone else.
"Way to keep fighting, guys," Childress said as Dillon returned to pit road after the race. "We gotta get some d*** race cars. I've seen enough out of our drivers and teams. We've got to work on this s***, period."
The comments to the No. 3 team were not the only ones Childress made after the race. He also spoke to the No. 8 team after Kyle Busch finished 11th.
The two-time Cup Series champion had shown speed early. He started 10th after rain washed out qualifying and then he scored two points in stage 1. At one point, Busch was the second-fastest car on the track, only behind Alex Bowman in terms of lap time.
Yet, the situation changed as the race progressed. His handling went away as the track took more and more rubber. He could no longer enter and exit the turns as he needed.
"Gotta get some race cars," Childress said as Busch headed to pit road after the race. "We are in trouble. Period."
This isn't a one-off comment about the "d*** race cars." Childress has openly acknowledged that the team has work to do before it can get back to contending for championships.
This is something he addressed during the Coca-Cola 600 weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway as RCR announced that the team had picked up Busch's option to keep him in the No. 8 through the 2026 season.
"Kyle has been great to work with," Childress said in May. "You know, everybody had questions going in. I love a driver that don't like to lose and we've worked hard. We've got some exciting things coming up.
"He and I are both alike in one area that we don't like to lose and want to win races. I still think that Kyle will win him a championship and we want to have it at RCR and that's our plans.
"We got a lot of new things coming. This car is a lot different. It's so engineer-driven that we're stepping our engineering up forward and I'm excited about the future of where we go and watching Kyle race and working with him."
The team hasn't fully made the progress it desired between the Coca-Cola 600 in May and Dover this past weekend. Neither Busch nor Dillon has reached victory lane. Both are below the playoff cutline with five races remaining in the regular season.
Work still remains, which the team members reiterated they will continue doing as spots remain in the playoffs.