Richard Childress Racing Cup teams trade places for 2004

WELCOME, N.C. (Dec. 4, 2003) – Richard Childress Racing announced today Chris Andrews, former RCR team engineer, will begin his rookie crew chief season in 2004 with Robby Gordon and the No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet team. In addition, to round out the rest of Team Cingular Wireless, the majority of the 2003 No. 30 crew members will join Andrews and Gordon to run for the 2004 NASCAR Cup championship.

"Robby got used to working with an engineer instead of a crew chief from his days of driving Indy Cars so this will be nothing new to him," said Richard Childress, president and CEO of Richard Childress Racing. "Chris and Kevin Hamlin were successful last year working side-by-side with Robby on the Cingular Wireless team and I see Chris making a smooth transition to calling the shots on his own. I think Robby and Chris working with the crew from last season’s America Online team can be a very successful combination."

An Evansville, Ind., native and 1992 graduate of Purdue University’s School of Interdisciplinary Engineering, Andrews has been an employee at Richard Childress Racing since 1999. One of the first engineers hired to join RCR, Andrews has worked with every Cup and Busch team but started focusing most of his attention toward the No. 31 Cingular Wireless team the latter part of the 2002 season after the No. 29/No. 31 crew swap took place.

“I have known Robby for almost 10 years now and we have worked great together the last year-and-a-half so I am ready to just keep moving forward and work for a win every weekend in 2004,” Andrews said. “This is a great opportunity Richard is giving me. I am very excited and optimistic about what lies ahead because we are building great race cars and a great team.”

Andrews worked alongside Gordon and his former crew chief Kevin Hamlin during the 2003 season, as Gordon posted his most successful year of stock car racing with two victories and a 16th-place finish in championship points. Gordon hopes to build from the high points of the past season to have a stronger run in 2004.

“I look forward to seeing what Chris has up his sleeve and to getting everything underway,” Gordon said. “Change is always good and it seemed to work well for everyone in 2002, so hopefully it will do the same for us next year. Change is what makes the world go round, so hopefully it will make us go around the track a little faster.”

Hamlin will assume the role as crew chief of the No. 30 Chevrolet, and will be joined in the move by his 2003 No. 31 Cingular Wireless crew.