Childress will run No. 33 for 5 races

Big news was announced at RCR during media week. Richard Childress announced that the 4th car at RCR will run for the first 5 races during the 2012 season. The 33 car was shut down at the end of the 2011 season. Sponsorship pulled back and RCR decided to not run the car. Clint Bowyer was let go and he snatched a ride at Michael Waltrip Racing, replacing David Reutimann, for 2012. The car will not be permanently shut down though. But, who will drive the No. 33 car? Nationwide Championship runner-up Elliott Sadler will pilot the car for the Daytona 500 along with running a full-time Nationwide schedule for RCR. Brendan Gaughan will run at Phoenix, Las Vegas, Bristol and Fontana and also compete in 10 Nationwide and 8 Truck Series races. General Mills, former primary sponsor for Bowyer and the 33, will sponsor Sadler in the Daytona 500. South Point casino, owned by the Gaughan family, will sponsor the other 4 races with Brendan. Kevin Harvick's former crew chief Gil Martin will be the crew chief for both drivers.

Elliott Sadler

This will be Elliott Sadler's first Sprint Cup start since the end of 2010. He was runner-up for the Daytona 500 in 2002 for the Wood Brothers. A fourth driver will be crucial at Daytona giving the team an even number for drafting. Sadler will join teammates Paul Menard, Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton.

Brenden Gaughan

Gaughan previously ran a full-time Cup schedule for Penske back in 2004, but has only entered into one race since then. "That's the second chance you normally don't get. I had a great opportunity before, and it didn't work out for us. But to be able to come back with the caliber of Richard Childress Racing is really an opportunity -- I'm kind of pinching myself saying it really came true." said Gaughan on coming back to the Cup series.

Mike Dillon, RCR vice president of competition, said that General Mills came back asking to run the Daytona 500. He said that the No. 33 car is locked into the first 5 races, but could add to that schedule as sponsorship comes.
"Right now we're focused on the five races we have, the sponsorship we have," he said. "Obviously if we had more sponsorship come in, would we run the car further? We most definitely would take a look at that and just see what all it could entail. If it was enough to do it, probably. We don't want to go at it halfway. We want to go at it with a winning effort, and as long as we we're able to do that, yes, we'd probably add [to] it.


Source; NASCAR.com;