I was thinking about Vickers and Childers today

Spike

Spike

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And I know I might sound like a homer, which I actively strive not to do, but I wish MWR would have found a way to keep Childers with the #55 team.

I know, the thought of working with Harvick and the allure of the Hendrick/SHR program is a tough thing to ignore.

But at the end of the day, Vickers and Childers just worked really damn well together. 17 starts, 1 win, 5 Top 5's, 9 Top Ten's. They just clicked. Not surprising really, they are good friends off the track.

Now I am not bemoaning Childers by any stretch, so much as simply wishing it was a combination that could have been preserved. I think they could have done great things as a team if they had continued to work together.

/rant
 
I am happy the way things turned out. MWR had a chance to keep him. Childers wasn't even sure that he wanted to work with Happy. To me that sounds like he was MWR's to lose, and that is exactly what happened.
 
First post on these forums. Vickers is one of my drivers, and to this day I wonder what might have been if MWR had been able to keep Childers with the 55...
 
JBone88 said:
First post on these forums. Vickers is one of my drivers, and to this day I wonder what might have been if MWR had been able to keep Childers with the 55...
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Welcome JBone88 , great post . I think Childers has become one of the top crew chiefs in Nascar . I don't know how long his contract is with SHR , but when he comes up for contract renewal he'll be getting a lot more offers to look at . MWR was in pretty tough shape last year losing sponsors etc ., I don't know if they could have kept him .
 
I think he made a wise choice. SHR is a better team and Harvick is a better driver imo.
I doubt that his past and current salary is public knowledge, but he already is two out of three to the positive.
 
JBone88 said:
First post on these forums. Vickers is one of my drivers, and to this day I wonder what might have been if MWR had been able to keep Childers with the 55...
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Welcome to the forum man! Nice to see a fellow Jamie Mac fan! :cheers:
 
BobbyFord said:
Vickers has impressed me so far this year.
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BV has always been a favorite. What sets this year apart IMO is his consistency. Love that he appears to be a TRD lifer.
 
Revman said:
Love that he appears to be a TRD lifer.
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With his illness cutting into his career suddenly & looking to end it before he should retire, Vickers will most likely take a job anywhere.
 
I want to reiterate I didn't make this thread to talk down about Childers. I agree with whomever said he is going to have a damn good career as a crew chief.
 
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Revman said:
BV has always been a favorite. What sets this year apart IMO is his consistency. Love that he appears to be a TRD lifer.
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He seems more focused this year. Maybe since the medical issues, he feels he lost a little bit of precious seat time.
 
ChexOrWrex said:
With his illness cutting into his career suddenly & looking to end it before he should retire, Vickers will most likely take a job anywhere.
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....or Toyota could have cut him loose, but didn't.
 
BobbyFord said:
He seems more focused this year. Maybe since the medical issues, he feels he lost a little bit of precious seat time.
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Marriage? Plus, his medical issues almost cost him seat time in life span.
 
As Harvick ripping his crew has become a weekly thing, makes me wish even more that the Vickers/Childers combo would have stayed togther.

Vickers gets 6th at Charlotte while starting 16th. Nice climb, would have like to have seen it in victory lane but still a good race for the #55 team.
 
Spike said:
As Harvick ripping his crew has become a weekly thing, makes me wish even more that the Vickers/Childers combo would have stayed togther.

Vickers gets 6th at Charlotte while starting 16th. Nice climb, would have like to have seen it in victory lane but still a good race for the #55 team.
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This.
 
Spike said:
As Harvick ripping his crew has become a weekly thing, makes me wish even more that the Vickers/Childers combo would have stayed togther.
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I believe Childers is enjoying winning multiple races & being competitive more than struggling for top 15s in a corrupt & dirty organization. If you want to win championships, you gotta make necessary changes.

Besides, see what happens when you give a crew chief a bowtie? :D
 
ChexOrWrex said:
I believe Childers is enjoying winning multiple races & being competitive more than struggling for top 15s in a corrupt & dirty organization. If you want to win championships, you gotta make necessary changes.

Besides, see what happens when you give a crew chief a bowtie? :D
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Corrupt and dirty---That's BS. Sell that bowtie stuff to the 41 and 10. The seeds have been sewn for Rodney to get Martined.
 
Revman said:
Corrupt and dirty---That's BS. Sell that bowtie stuff to the 41 and 10. The seeds have been sewn for Rodney to get Martined.
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Keep on itchin it dude. If harvick wins the championship, childers wont even think about MWR and Toyotas ever again.
 
Spike said:
wasnt meaning this turn into a Chevy vs. Toyota, SHR vs. MWR, or Harvick vs. Vickers argument. Apologies.
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Naw. We took it there. Your point is very well taken. BV's comments post race tonight about the quality of communication he has with Billy Johnson is very encouraging. A very nice year for Brian so far...
 
He's doing well for working with a new crew chief. Not quite Top 5 pace yet, but a contender for Top 10s every week. A lot of people didn't think he should have been put back in a quality full-time Cup ride when he signed last year but he's proving them wrong; he looks to be a Chase driver for sure.
 
In fact I am going to predict that Vickers wins at either Kentucky or Indianapolis...
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I always like seeing Vickers do well.. I was so pumped at New Hampshire last year. Vickers won the first full race I ever watched so I have kind of a soft spot for him lol.. Its just kinda programmed in there.
 
Spike said:
As Harvick ripping his crew has become a weekly thing, makes me wish even more that the Vickers/Childers combo would have stayed togther.

Vickers gets 6th at Charlotte while starting 16th. Nice climb, would have like to have seen it in victory lane but still a good race for the #55 team.
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Harvick didn't say anything that wasn't true. He didn't rip Childers, just the pit crew. Two different things. He said Childers put the best car under him, but even with the best car they still can't make up for the mistakes made in the pit. Where is the false statement? What would you rather him say? You don't think Childers feels the same? You know the difference between the 4 and 55 right now? Expectations. The 55 right now expect top 10s and are happy with top 5s. The 4 expect wins and are happy with nothing else. Especially when you have the best car week in and week out.
 
Jeffrey00 said:
Harvick didn't say anything that wasn't true. He didn't rip Childers, just the pit crew. Two different things. He said Childers put the best car under him, but even with the best car they still can't make up for the mistakes made in the pit. Where is the false statement? What would you rather him say? You don't think Childers feels the same? You know the difference between the 4 and 55 right now? Expectations. The 55 right now expect top 10s and are happy with top 5s. The 4 expect wins and are happy with nothing else. Especially when you have the best car week in and week out.
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Who's in charge of the pit crew? The CREW Chief. No question the expectations are different at the moment, but everybody wants to win. This is a conversation about what happens when you don't. BV handles it differently. BTW--Where is Danica in your SHR badass looking avi?
 
Revman said:
No question the expectations are different at the moment, but everybody wants to win. This is a conversation about what happens when you don't. BV handles it differently.
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This is my point though. Vickers and Harvick just aren't in the same place expectations wise. Vickers gets a top 5 with a decent car is a great night. Harvick finishing second with the best car because of a loose wheel isn't great. I don't know where these pit guys came from. If they were hired on or carried over from the 39, they need to understand that they are now part of a championship caliber team now. Not only are they expected to win every week they are also expected to be there at homestead fighting for the championship. You can't say that for the 55. Could the 55 be there at the end? Sure, but they aren't expected to be. So Harvick calling out his crew is okay in my book. I am sure Childers feels the exact same way. They need to understand now that they have to be perfect. Also, when Harvick does something stupid like speeding on pit road he will own up to it.


Revman said:
BTW--Where is Danica in your SHR badass looking avi?
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She is behind Tony.
 
I don't like seeing drivers call out their crew on TV because you never see it the other way around. A crew guy could never call out a driver for wrecking himself, he'd be fired on the spot. That type of one way critisicm is lame, and should only be done behind closed doors IMO.

Jeffrey does make a good point about expectations though. They outran 41 other cars and still had a "bad" day within the realm of their own expectations. The 4 team is contending for wins not just top 10's. So the critisicm of the crew was fair, it was just done in an unfair manner IMO.

This was to be expected though, where was SHR going to get all these crew guys from? 2 years ago, they had 2 cars, now they have 4 that's double the required crew members. I'm just surprised that it hasn't been Kurt getting the short end of the stick in terms of pit crew guys. His pit crew has been decent so far if I recall, he's just been blowing engines and wrecking lol.
 
3wideinturn1 said:
I don't like seeing drivers call out their crew on TV because you never see it the other way around. A crew guy could never call out a driver for wrecking himself, he'd be fired on the spot. That type of one way critisicm is lame, and should only be done behind closed doors IMO.
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Chocolate Myers said today that the crew just don't have the media outlets the drivers do. That if they did they probably would call put drivers more.
 
Jeffrey00 said:
Chocolate Myers said today that the crew just don't have the media outlets the drivers do. That if they did they probably would call put drivers more.
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Well I suppose I'm commenting more on the general hierarchy of the sport. Like if an NFL punter calls out the QB, usually said punter is cut by the next morning; fair or not, it's the way it is. A driver can get loose and wreck, or overdrive the car and hit the wall and its just racing, but as soon a pit crew guy misses a lug he's the biggest goat out there.
 
I think Driver mistakes are actually more expected then crew mistakes especially on a good team, you really need that crew to perform to win a race cause most other crews will and a driver can only make up so much.
 
Jeffrey00 said:
Chocolate Myers said today that the crew just don't have the media outlets the drivers do. That if they did they probably would call put drivers more.
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Who is the driver that will take that ****? Seriously. You can get rid of a guy making whatever a crew guy makes (don't know what that is and don't care, but it is less than a driver), but you are probably going to hold on to the dude that draws the sponsorship. That's the intense line a CC walks. You have to keep your driver motivated, but you can't get walked on. You have to support your guys without alienating your driver. You go too far in either direction, you get fired. Fascinating stuff.
 
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