RCR Racing hasn’t had too much luck as of late. Their Cup team hasn’t won a race since 2013, but that isn’t the case with their Xfinity program. RCR has the second best Chevy team in the series and racked up three wins coming from drivers Michael McDowell and Austin Dillon. RCR’s team is very well managed and have won 77 Xfinity Series races to date. Now in 2017 RCR will make history, between their Cup and Xfinity teams, RCR will field eight full-time entries. a few things will remain the same, #2 Chevy will be primarily piloted by Austin Dillon and Paul Menard with backing from Rheem and Menards. Brandon Jones came off a solid rookie campaign and will be back in the #33 Chevy sponsored by various companies. Finally the #62 South Point Casino Chevy will as always, be piloted by Brenden Gaughan. Here are some new changes coming to the RCR Xfinity side for 2017.
RCR’s Xfinity Program to expand to Five Teams
Daniel Hemric
Former NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Daniel Hemric will join the team in 2017. Spending all of last season with Brad Keselowski Racing, it was announced that the team will resurrect the famous #21 ride for Hemric. Making his Truck Debut in 2013 with Sharp-Gallaher Racing, he made the jump to full time in 2016. In his first season with NTS Motorsports he rallied for four top five finishes and nine top ten finishes. In his final season in Trucks he joined BKR to drive the #19 Ford F-150. In that season he added 11 more top fives and six more top tens. Hemric doesn’t just bring his immense talent with him to RCR but his long time sponsor, California Clean Power – a company that sponsored him in 2015 and 2016 – is most likely the they will make a return. Other sponsors will be announced at a later date.
The Fate of the #3 Car
Now that Ty Dillon has accepted his first full-time Monster Energy Cup ride with Germain Racing, it is unclear as to what will happen to the iconic #3 ride. RCR announced that Ty Dillon will run “most” of the Xfinity Schedule in 2017, with other drivers filling in the gaps. RCR’s #2 team ran a bunch of other drivers in 2016. Including some racers with no immediate plans for 2017. It is possible that drivers like Sam Hornish Jr, Ben Kennedy or Regan Smith could fill in the gaps if the right sponsorship is found. Michael McDowell who races for Leavine Family Racing in the Cup series (a team that is technically allied with RCR) could also fill in the road course races. Finally, A.J Allmendinger and Chris Buescher to drivers who are racing for another allied team JTG Daugherty Racing could possibly fill in the gaps too. Sponsors for this team aren’t yet announced but Rheem, Wesco and Menards could possibly be candidates.
RCR looks set to have a blockbuster 2017 campaign. With a plethora of talented racers, the owner’s title appears to be in full grasp of RCR. For their full-time teams, Brandon Jones has shown immense improvement since his rookie year and look for him and his teammate Daniel Hemric to be running up front. 2017 will be a bright year for Richard Childress and his Xfinity team.
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