LONG POND, Pa. – Crew chief Danny Stockman doesn’t have any difficulty finding motivation to elevate the performance at Richard Childress Racing.
“RCR as a whole—we don’t like to suck,” said Stockman, who has replaced Justin Alexander as crew chief on Paul Menard’s No. 27 Chevrolet, effective this week. “We have all the tools to do this right. We’ve got some new stuff that we have been working on as a company and everything–it’s never-ending.
“We’ve got to stay ahead of that curve. I feel like right now, like I said, I’m new and I’m scanning through the pictures after practice and walking through the garage here (at Pocono), eyeballs wide open, looking at everybody’s equipment. We have all the stuff. Our stuff is there. It’s competitive.”
Opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice did nothing to change Stockman’s opinion. Menard, who hasn’t had a top-five finish in 20 starts this season, topped the speed chart at 177.438 mph. He followed that up later Friday by qualifying third for Sunday’s race, his best starting spot in 82 races.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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