While Austin Dillon and Martin Truex, Jr. were posing for photos after taking the front row for the 56th running of the Daytona 500 Danny Lawrence had a big smile.
If Lawrence isn’t a household name he may well become famous for being the engine builder at Earnhardt Childress Racing providing the horsepower that put those drivers one-two for the start of NASCAR’s biggest race of the year. Although Truex is with Furniture Row Racing ECR also provides engines for that team. It’s fitting that ECR is back in the news because years ago, when it was Richard Childress Racing, they built the engine that helped the late Dale Earnhardt have the power to chose when and where the “Intimidator” challenged his NASCAR rivals. When Earnhardt died thirteen years ago it was like taking the air out of a balloon at RCR. The rise of 23-year Austin Dillon has re-inflated, reinvigorated the entire organization.
As Lawrence explained: "it's no secret when we lost Dale, we rode an adrenaline for a little while there, and Kevin Harvick did a very nice job being able to get into his seat, and then we had some pretty lean years. When you've got a guy that's driving for you that's your friend and to me the best racecar driver out there, it's just about impossible to recover from that. You know, I really believe that none of anybody in our company has ever given up, but I'm going to tell you, it's a breath of fresh air to be able to see Austin and Ty and Ryan Newman and Martin Truex and these guys that are great race car drivers be able to sit in our stuff, and it took us to while to recover to be will able to get back to where we needed to be." The 52-year old Lawrence has been with RCR since the Dale Earnhardt days and said he thinks that the team will be back on top where they were with the Intimidator. "Richard always says, you don't want to hear any excuses and it's all about the results," said Danny Lawrence. "Well, there we go again. It's been long enough where I think everybody is healed and we've got a little satisfaction of some of our other stuff, and we've been able to execute and we've got that feeling again, and I think that our company is ready to go to contend, and I don't think it's just about Daytona, I think we're going to be good everywhere we go, and if we're not, we're going to go back, we're going to regroup, and we're going to good hit them again. "Just as I said, Richard has always told us the next race is the most important race. Our cars look great, from what I understand, in the wind tunnel, and I know our engines are good for Phoenix, and they're sitting there, and we're very prepared and we're ready to go. "It's just all about the preparation, and I think that we're set up for a great year."
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