"The wind blows hardest at the top of the mountain."—Former Georgetown University Basketball Coach John Thompson

  DAYTONA BEACH – Mike Verlander’s pre-race schedule was packed with appointments last Sunday. As the president of a race team that won a single race in 82 combined starts last season, the Jacksonville native was suddenly in demand hours before the Daytona 500.

Richard Childress Racing once was the gold standard in the NASCAR Cup Series. Of course, Dale Earnhardt was a big part of that. But when he died 25 years ago on the final lap of the Daytona 500, RCR’s descent from the elite quickly followed.

The rebuilding process has been frustrating, if not painful. The harder Childress worked, the further the team fell behind the other powerhouses like Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Penske Racing.

After putting technical and mechanical people at the helm, Childress decided to put a businessman and people person in charge. And nobody fits those qualifications better than Verlander.

“The proof in the pudding and that's what's been great for all these guys and gals,” Verlander said. “You know we got over 400 people that work to make this happen. They're seeing their work now and the new process and some of the new personnel. They're seeing it's paying off, so it's been tremendous.”

Verlander, who’s worked at Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch Motorsports and Stewart-Haas Racing, was hired at RCR as Chief Operating Officer in 2024. He became the company president a year later. His job is to run Childress’ companies and put the right people in place to get the two full-time Cup Series teams for Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon back in the fast lane.

He used his quiet but matter-of-fact demeanor to shuffle personnel and hire new people. He changed the culture. He exercised an attitude of defeat and doubt. NASCAR then approved a new nose for the Chevrolet ZL1 which means RCR wasn’t playing catch-up with the other Chevy teams.

They came to Daytona and Busch won the pole position for the 500. Austin Hill won the pole position and the race for the United Rentals 300 for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at the Daytona International Speedway.

The 500 didn’t work out as they hoped, but it rarely does for anyone. There were 65 leads changed among 25 drivers. Busch led four times for a total of 10 laps, but he and Dillon were among the 31 of 41 cars that were involved in three crashes. Dillon finished 37^th, while Busch was 15^th.

But the statement that RCR was back to form was delivered.

“As Nick Saban says, you have to trust the process and the highs and the lows,” Verlander said. “So for us last year, quite honestly, we knew there would be moments where it felt like it may be getting worse before it got better because you've got to get the folks you've brought in new and then the folks that have been there a long time like a Danny Lawrence, Mike Dillon. Mike's in a new role for us. You've got to have the new folks and some of the folks who have been there blend together.”

Lawrence is the Vice President of Alliance Operations of Earnhardt Childress Racing engines, while Mike Dillon, Childress’ son-in-law, is the Chairman and CEO of RCR.

“We got the right people in place,” Mike Dillon said. “We have people doing everything the right way. We're not settling for mediocrity. We're expecting to be the best.”

Childress has been in NASCAR for 53 years. He’s sent 3,444 cars – with 118 wins and six championships – to the starting line since his first race in 1969. But in the last two years, RCR has had 60 combined starts with only two wins.

“We're here to race cars and be competitive, and we are working hard to make RCR great again for Richard, for no other reason, but we have a lot of stuff we're doing outside of the race team,” Verlander said. “If you look at RCR, RCR Enterprises, the race team is one of the verticals in that enterprise.”

Childress also operates RCR Manufacturing Solutions business. His company builds specialty vehicles for “three letters” government agencies. All teams in Sunday’s Daytona 500 used CT Springs in their engines that were manufactured by Childress, and the company built M2X – a compressor that sits on a 53-foot chemical plant that captures methane gas in landfills and converts it into biomethanol and sells it to power steamship lines.

“Everything Richard does is to support racing,” Verlander said.

“It's very hard, this, it's very hard at this level,” Lawrence said. “If you look around us, there are a lot of smart people, a lot of the best race car drivers in the world. It's not easy. But we're up for the challenge.”