“The pressure is on RCR,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr in the latest episode of his podcast. So far, Richard Childress Racing is having major difficulties navigating this season. From poorly planned strategies to uncontrollable accidents, the team has faced everything contributing to their tough season. However, while analyzing the team’s performance, Dale Earnhardt Jr pointed out a significant issue.

Shedding light on the situation at Richard Childress Racing, Dale Jr pointed out that the team’s main problem is not a lack of capability but rather finding employees who live closer to the RCR garage. Some employees commute daily, which, Dale Jr argued, undermines the team’s competitiveness. He emphasized that having the best pit crew and driver combo is crucial, and this is where the team is struggling.

Dale Jr tries to identify the problem at Richard Childress Racing

“I don’t know. They are in Welcome, North Carolina. It’s literally just another hour up the road,” said Dale Jr, while discussing RCR’s situation on The Dale Jr Download podcast. “It is not that far, but it might as well be on Mars because, you know, when you get an opportunity to hire somebody who has a lot of talent, one of the tough selling points is that they travel every day up the road.”

According to Dale Jr, one hour of traveling does not seem like the end of the world, but when you consider doing that daily, it becomes challenging. The former driver explained, “If you have people who live in Mooresville, live on the lake, live in Cornelius, live in Davidson, they’re established.”

Talking about the personal commitments that NASCAR team members make, Dale Jr continued, “They’ve got kids going to school here, their wives love the area, they have friends in the neighborhood, and then you’re going to ask them to try to drive to Welcome every day, every day of the week, and go there, and the traveling on the race weekends is going to be hard.”

After drawing a parallel to FRM and how the team has many members relocating to be closer to the garage, Dale Jr explained how it is still different. “I think the challenge for RCR really is about getting people to come to Welcome and make that commitment to drive that drive or physically move there. Some do. They got employees; they got great employees.”

Identifying the problem, he continued, “But if you’re missing a couple of key cogs in the wheel, you’re just always going to be that little bit off.” Giving his final breakdown of RCR, Dale Jr said, “They’re a little bit off. They’re not cr*p. They’re just missing that extra little bit they need, and I don’t know if they can find it in the bucket they have.”

After stating that he is making assumptions and has not spoken to any member of their team, he hoped that RCR figured out what they need to do to change their trajectory. This begs the question: how does this affect the team?

Why does a team living in the same city matter so much in NASCAR?

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According to Dale Jr’s identified problem, traveling an hour every day is too hectic for crew members. That time could be better spent working on the car and helping the team gain an advantage. Highlighting some of the issues that the team is facing, the former NASCAR driver suggests that having the entire crew in-house might be more productive.

However, the logistics of such a scenario might be challenging to pull off, as many crew members have families they need to attend to and a social life they would rather not uproot.

As of RCR’s playoff scene, Kyle Busch had an unfortunate incident at Pocono, which made it difficult for the team to score points. On the other hand, Austin Dillon is struggling, as he has only achieved a top-10 finish twice this season.

Kyle Busch has made it to the top five twice this season, but that is still not enough to secure a spot in the playoffs. Dillon will not be making it to the playoffs this season, and Busch is in the first four with a 14.94% chance of making it to the playoffs after Pocono.

With the way the team is moving forward, do you think that RCR will be able to recover from such a difficult season in the next five races? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.