USA TODAY International Edition
Burton, Harvick embrace changes
New developments have Richard Childress Racing teammates Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick feeling less burdened and more optimistic in advance of Daytona Speedweeks, which culminate with the Daytona 500 on Feb. 26.
Burton, 44, hopes welcoming crew chief Drew Blickensderfer will help him rebound from his worst year since 1995.
Harvick, too, has a new crew chief, Shane Wilson, and says he hopes to build on consecutive third- place finishes in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series without the burdens and distractions of team ownership after selling Kevin Harvick Inc. to RCR.
And with the announcement that his wife, Delana, was expecting the couple’s first child, Harvick, 36, says he is in a clearer frame of mind.
“If you have a race team, you know this is the busiest time of the year,” says Harvick, who had success as an owner in the Camping World Truck and Nationwide series. “This is when you’ve got to make all the new paint schemes. This is when you have to hunt for sponsors.
“With Richard taking that burden, Delana was just bound and determined that we were not racing and having kids.”
Harvick, whose wife is 15 weeks along, plans to dabble as a driver in trucks and Nationwide cars but seems to be enjoying his lightened load of offseason obligations.
“Having a pregnant wife at home will conquer boredom pretty fast,” Harvick says. “We got to enjoy a lot of things this winter, going on vacation two or three times and doing things that you enjoy with friends.
“We really just learned how to be normal.”
Burton, meanwhile, is seeking his own kind of normalcy — like the return to top- 10 contention. A veteran with 21 career Cup victories but winless in his last 113 starts, Burton was 20th in points last season with five top- 10s, both his worst in 16 years.
But Blickensderfer, who previously worked with Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth and David Ragan at Roush Fenway Racing, has Burton re- energized.
“I wanted him, and he wanted me,” Burton says. “He’s driven. We have the same goals in mind. His son and my son have done some racing against each other. You find out a lot about a man when your kids are racing ( each other).
“I’m not here just to extend my career. I’m here to win a championship. To do that, with all things considered, I felt Drew was the right guy.”
Blickensderfer says an all- forone attitude at RCR would help.
“We’re embracing a commonality between cars,” he says. “We want to have similar bodies, similar chassis. We want to be able, on a Saturday afternoon, to plug in somebody else’s setup if we need to.”