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Richard Childress Racing exec reassures fans after rough start to 2025 NASCAR season

Nick Profile Picby:Nick Geddes•03/28/25•

NickGeddesNews

Richard Childress Racing
Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Richard Childress Racing needed to get off to a fast start this NASCAR season after a disappointing 2024. Through six races, it’s been a mixed bag for the longtime Cup Series team.

Austin Dillon is 28th in the points standings, while Busch is currently slotted 17th. Keith Rodden, Dillon’s former crew chief and now vice president of competition at RCR, said Wednesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that their overall speed has improved in 2025. Now, it’s a matter of running up front and learning how to win races, which he’s confident the team will do.

“I feel like the entire complex has had speed this year in each series. We just need to take that next jump and there’s a difference between running fifth and winning,” Rodden said. “We need to have Kyle and Austin in the top five, learning what they need to contend for wins and make those adjustments and get our cars there. The very beginning of the season, we had potential to win races, and we need to continue working on our notes that we’ve taken from last year and so far this year and keep working on our cars and get better.

“Everyone on this complex is a lot faster and like I said, it’s a testament to everyone at our shop and everyone at ECR for the great engines they’re building. We just need to keep pushing and keep getting speed. But we want to make sure we race at the front of the field. We don’t do this to ride around, and we need to be up front. We owe it to all of our fans and all of our partners to go out there and put our best effort forward and go win races.”

NASCAR insider considers whether Kyle Busch, RCR should ‘press the panic button’

Rodden isn’t wrong. RCR has been faster this season. Busch had one of the fastest cars at COTA and had the lead late before fading in the closing laps. Busch finished fifth, the best finish for an RCR driver. Riding a career-long 63-race winless streak, Busch already has three top 10s and has led 58 laps. But back-to-back sluggish efforts at Las Vegas and Homestead, respectively, have brought up questions if RCR is truly back on track.

Dillon hasn’t been as fast as Busch but has three finishes of 16th or better. He is responsible for RCR’s latest victory — August 2024 at Richmond. As for RCR’s potential at getting back to the postseason, The Athletic‘s Jordan Bianchi isn’t convinced they can point their way in.

“RCR is not Joe Gibbs. They’re not a Hendrick. They’re not week in and week out, regardless of the racetrack you know they’re going to be good,” Bianchi said on The Teardown podcast. “That’s not who RCR is right now. And so I don’t feel like they can point their way in. But Kyle is still a good enough driver to figure out a way to win a race.

“He almost did it at Darlington last year. He almost did it at Atlanta. And they need to focus on that. They need to get speed into the racecars. If you give Kyle Busch a fast racecar, I think he can go do something with it. “